In fiscal year 2025, federal funds accounted for $756,824 of the Montana State Library’s Natural Resource Information System (NRIS) budget, representing over a third of total NRIS revenue. These federal dollars are essential for making geospatial information and mapping products on Montana’s natural resources easily and readily available for land management, infrastructure planning, and permitting across Montana.

Federal funds make up 37% of NRIS revenue. Key federal partners include the Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, NRCS, and Bonneville Power Administration. Federal investments ensure that Montana’s communities, businesses, and agencies have access to the reliable, up-to-date information they need for stewardship, planning, and economic growth.

Should federal funds be lost, several key natural resource projects and the staff that support them would be at risk. The Montana State Library relies on NRCS agreements to process and deliver customized NAIP imagery, which is essential for state agencies, local governments, and the private sector. Most statewide lidar data acquisition and management are funded by federal partners such as USGS, NRCS, and FEMA. While much of this funding does not go directly to the library, the resulting data is foundational for mapping, flood-risk assessment, and infrastructure planning across Montana. Without continued federal investment, only existing imagery and lidar data would remain available, and the state would lose the capacity to acquire and process new information.

A lack of updated lidar data would also significantly hinder Montana’s ability to prepare for and respond to fire season. Lidar provides detailed, three-dimensional information on forest structure and fuel loads, which is critical for mapping wildfire risk, modeling fire behavior, and targeting fuel reduction efforts. Without new lidar acquisitions and ready access to the data, land and fire managers would be forced to rely on stale information, making it more difficult to predict fire spread, prioritize prevention, and plan effective responses, increasing the risk to Montana communities as wildfire seasons intensify.

Federal support is also critical for Montana’s water information systems. Key hydrography and watershed datasets are currently frozen while transitioning to a new national data model through the USGS 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP). Reduced federal funding would prolong this transition, forcing agencies and partners to rely on aging data. Outdated hydrography can undermine Montana’s ability to manage and prepare for growth and development.  Reliable watercourse information depicts some of the most sensitive and high-risk landscapes, such as floodplains, riparian zones, and channel migration zones.  Rivers and streams need space to flood and move.  Up-to-date hydrography assists municipalities and agencies with growth plans and guidance to minimize risk to infrastructure and property and to maintain clean water.

Loss of federal funds would also have serious impacts on the Montana Natural Heritage Program, which relies on federal grants and contracts for core data services. Without this support, the program would face significant financial shortfalls that state or private funding could not easily replace. While existing natural heritage data collections would remain available, they would quickly become static and outdated, undermining MTNHP’s ability to expedite environmental reviews and provide certainty to its users in environmental review, permitting, and planning processes. If the program is unable to update its species and habitat data, Environmental Summary Reports and other resources would become less reliable, forcing developers and permit applicants to spend more time and money seeking or generating their own data. This would increase costs, cause delays, and erode the efficiency and predictability that MTNHP currently brings to permitting and land planning processes across Montana. Without current and comprehensive information in place, industry would also face greater uncertainty from litigation.

While current funding for Montana’s natural resource data and mapping initiatives appears secure, the future is uncertain. NRCS is interested in renewing its five-year agreement with the Montana State Library, but its core team working with the library has shrunk from five to two, reducing institutional knowledge and continuity for this long-standing partnership.

Other major federal funding sources also face instability. The USGS Data Collaboration Announcement (DCA), the primary federal opportunity for states like Montana to fund critical mapping projects, is expected to open for applications in late 2025, but currently has no dedicated budget. The DCA supports the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), which uses lidar to produce detailed elevation maps, and the 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP), which updates maps of rivers, streams, and lakes. These programs are essential for Montana’s flood management, infrastructure planning, and natural resource conservation, but both rely on a mix of federal and matching state or local funds. This lack of budget and uncertainty is already causing funding partners to hesitate, making it difficult to plan or commit resources.

The Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service have committed funding through state fiscal year 2026, pending final approval from Washington and the DOGE. As both agencies contend with staff reductions and instability, they increasingly depend on the expertise and data provided by the Montana Natural Heritage Program to fulfill their missions. However, unstable funding threatens the very data, systems, and staff that make such support possible. The Montana Natural Heritage Program already operates without an ecologist and permanent invasive species data manager, and further funding uncertainty could ripple through its botany, ecology, zoology, and information services programs, undermining essential support for natural resource management and environmental review, permitting, and planning processes across Montana.