About Montana CONservaton Society
The Montana Conservation Society and the Montana Conservation Fund are two separate entities, tied together by a common goal of reducing conflict around wildlife management, and increasing collaboration between landowners, hunters and outfitters. Over the last 40 years, beneficiaries of the public trust, our shared wildlife, have been fighting over the allocation of the resource, over issues related to access and overuse of wildlife.
Our philosophy is that these are good problems to have, as they speak to healthy wildlife numbers and arguments of abundance, rather than scarcity. The success that private landowners and public hunters had when they worked hand-in-glove to restore elk, deer, pronghorn and other wildlife species back from the brink of extinction.
Only by working together, can landowners, hunters and outfitters find common ground, and common cause, when it comes to keeping the kind of wildlife resources we have today for future generations.
Rob Arnaud, Executive Director
Rob Arnaud is a generational MT native who grew up in Manhattan MT and earned a bachelors degree in Ag/Animal Science from Montana State University. He learned the science and art of wildlife management while employed by a large private ranch. This unique perspective of wildlife helped him create a very successful hunting operation that benefited private and public hunters as well as the habitat. All of these experiences help in becoming solution based on the vast array of issues surrounding wildlife in the state of Montana!
Ben Lamb, Policy Director
Ben has worked in conservation in the Northern Rockies since 2002. Starting in Wyoming, Ben has worked extensively on wildlife & public lands management, as well as working with landowners and industry leaders on shared conservation goals such as the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund. Ben and his wife moved to Montana in 2007 and has worked extensively on state wildlife management issues, access programs, conservation programs and most importantly, he has represented conservation interests at the Montana State Legislature since 2009. He is an avid upland hunter, a dedicated angler of all types and kinds and probably is the world’s worst elk hunter, but he keeps trying.
Kenton Hickitheir
Kenton Hickethier, Eastern Field Representative. Kenton worked over 28 years as a sworn peace officer in the largest law enforcement agency in Montana ranging from entry level to executive level experience. Promoted based on leadership and management ability, knowledge, ability to multitask using sound judgment and decision making, and effectively communicating with a strong sense of social intelligence to diverse workgroups. Two of his strongest attributes are people and communication skills. He retired as the Colonel/Chief of the Montana Highway Patrol. Additionally, he retired from the Air National Guard as a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9), and spent 24 ½ years in the Security Police Career Field, which included a deployment overseas to Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. He started his military career in the Air Force where he spent 3 ½ years before transferring to the Montana Air National Guard. Duties as Security Forces Chief included being the primary advisor to the Commander Security Forces in formulating and implementing installation security forces programs concerning base defense, police services, industrial information, personal security administration, normal contingency operations, and combat arms training. He provided oversight for antiterrorism and force protection for the installation, including a deployment to southwest Asia. Additional duties in southwest Asia included sending troops on missions to Afghanistan to pickup Taliban prisoners from Special Forces at barren airfields. He was the Senior Enlisted representative for the base at K2, Uzbekistan and was the Senior NCO representative that revitalized and oversaw the Top Three Organization at the Montana Air National Guard.
Kenton spends approximately one third of his time in the field hunting and fishing. He is very conservation minded and belongs to multiple organizations improving conservation and hunting opportunities.
Bob Hoverson
Bob Hoverson is a Montana native, born and raised in Malta, he has been an avid hunter and fisherman all his life. He holds a BS degree in Forestry from the University of Montana. Bob worked 42 years for the USDA Forest Service and is now retired and manages a large private Montana ranch for hunting. In his Forest Service career, he worked over 20 years as a Professional Animal Packer. He has taught horse and mule packing and stock oriented “Leave No Trace” techniques for many years and is author of an instructional book titled THE PACKER’S FIELD MANUAL.