(1) Designation of major versions of the Montana Mitigation System Habitat Quantification Tool Technical Manual for Greater Sage-Grouse shall prompt the initiation of rulemaking to incorporate the new major version by reference. 

(2) MSGOT shall review all proposed changes to major versions of its designated Montana Mitigation System Habitat Quantification Tool Technical Manual for Greater Sage-Grouse after a publicly announced MSGOT meeting and after accepting written and oral public comment.

(3) Minor versions of the Montana Mitigation System Habitat Quantification Tool Technical Manual for Greater Sage-Grouse shall be recorded by the program after a publicly announced meeting of the Montana Sage Grouse Oversight Team and after accepting public comment.

(4) Once the current Montana Mitigation System HQT has been applied to calculate the functional acres gained on a proposed mitigation site, or the functional acres lost on a proposed development site; the program has completed its review; and the project developer obtains the necessary state or federal permits, any subsequent versions of the HQT will not apply to the project except as provided in (b).

(a) Once the HQT has been applied to calculate the number of functional acres gained or lost for a project and MSGOT has approved, the number of calculated functional acres gained or lost will not be changed without written approval from every party to the mitigation transaction for the project, including, but not limited to:

(i) MSGOT;

(ii) the project developer; and

(iii) the credit provider.

(b) Permit amendments will be subject to the current version of the HQT to calculate functional acres lost resulting from new activities associated with the amendment.

(c) Amendments to credit sites will be subject to the current version of the Montana Mitigation System Habitat Quantification Tool Technical Manual for Greater Sage-Grouse at the time of the proposed amendment.

(5) The current version of the MSGOT designated Montana Mitigation System Habitat Quantification Tool Technical Manual for Greater Sage-Grouse is the version made available to the public on the program's web site. Past versions of HQT and the technical manual will be blocked from further use except as allowed in (4)(a) and preserved in archive by the program.

(6) MSGOT or any other third party must apply the current version of the Montana Mitigation System Habitat Quantification Tool Technical Manual for Greater Sage-Grouse to calculate functional acres gained or lost as provided on the program's website and applied by the program to perform the calculations for the following:

(a) a conservation bank;

(b) participation in a habitat credit exchange approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS);

(c) making a financial contribution to the Sage-Grouse Stewardship Account if sufficient credits are not available;

(d) implementing stand-alone mitigation actions to offset impacts to sage grouse habitat;

(e) calculating functional acres gained by funding from the Sage-Grouse Stewardship Account; or

(f) calculating functional acres gained through stand-alone efforts to create mitigation credit sites.