Longtime Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks employee Michael Volesky, of Helena, is alleging that the department’s recent decision to fire him is politically motivated.
Volesky, who most recently served as chief of operations for FWP, told Montana Free Press the department had no defensible cause for terminating his employment last week, especially after a county attorney dropped the hunting-without-permission charge that purportedly led the department to place Volesky on extended administrative leave in October.
The agency fired Volesky last Monday, June 10, three months after Lewis and Clark County Deputy Attorney Deanna Rothwell dropped the charge that had spurred the agency’s review into Volesky’s employment.
In a brief statement to MTFP, FWP spokesperson Greg Lemon said the termination was the result of a “thorough investigation by an outside, independent investigator.” Lemon declined to provide additional information.
Volesky told MTFP the department maligned him in the press by making “disparaging conjectures” related to the charge, which stemmed from a 2023 hunting trip in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest southeast of Lincoln.
Details of that hunt are included in a motion to dismiss that Volesky’s attorney submitted to Lewis and Clark County District Court.
“Other wardens have told me, ‘We would never issue a citation in this situation. We just never win on those.’ No other employee I know of has even been disciplined for such a thing.”
Former Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks employee Michael Volesky
A week later, FWP Chief of Law Enforcement Ron Howell summoned Volesky to his office to discuss Burgess’ accusation.
During that meeting, as recounted in Volesky’s legal filing, Volesky explained to Howell that he and Burgess share “personal history.” Burgess is Volesky’s former brother-in-law. Though the two once jointly purchased a boat for shared use, relations between them have been strained for more than a decade, Volesky told MTFP.
Later that day, Howell issued a citation to Volesky for failure to obtain landowner permission for hunting, a misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $500. The following week, department leadership placed Volesky on paid administrative leave.
Volesky’s attorney presented two arguments in the motion to dismiss. The first is that Forest Service Road 1890 “was not then and is not now private property,” having been open to the public since 1883. The second is that even if the road were closed to public use, Tom Burgess’ now-deceased father, Hank Burgess, had explicitly granted Volesky permission to use the road for hunting, a privilege that “does not permit future owners of the property to revoke access granted by Hank.”
On March 13, the day after Volesky’s attorney submitted the motion to dismiss, Rothwell dropped the charges against Volesky in a one-page document.
Rothwell did not respond to MTFP’s request for additional information about the county’s reasons for dropping the charge.
Volesky argues that the department relied on a “tortured legal explanation” to underpin its decision to place him on leave and clung to that logic even when the charges didn’t stick.
“Other wardens have told me, ‘We would never issue a citation in this situation. We just never win on those,’” Volesky said. “No other employee I know of has even been disciplined for such a thing.”
Should the department successfully apply the logic it used to fire Volesky in its treatment of other contested roads and trails, recreationists across the state stand to lose much of the public land access they currently enjoy, Volesky argues.
… (content continues)
