According to the audit, there were 26 Block Management Areas either all or part of which contained 23 conservation easements purchased at a cost of $11.6 million. All of the easements contain provisions requiring landowners to allow public hunting access and establish a minimum number of hunters that landowners must allow on the easement.

Between 2001 and 2012, the auditors found, FWP paid $2 million through the Block Management Program to the easement landowners. Excluding the payments to the easement owners would free up $200,000 annually for the Block Management Program, the audit said, providing money to enroll other lands.

In one instance the audit found that FWP’s Block Management agreement actually allowed the landowner to admit only the minimum number of hunters outlined in the easement agreement.

“I just can’t imagine after being on the (Fish and Wildlife) commission and the Fish, Wildlife and Parks (committee) in the Senate that I didn’t know about that until the audit,” said Sen. John Brenden, R-Scobey, a frequent critic of the state agency and chairman of the EQC. “The department is complaining about it needs more money and yet people are double dipping. That’s insane. It’s a hell of a way to run a business.”