Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative--Blackfoot Valley Watershed Grizzly and Wolf update

news from the People & Carnivores Program

Grizzly Bear and Wolf Update for the Blackfoot Watershed
The partnership between NRCC and the Blackfoot Challenge continues to pay conservation dividends. Since 2003-2009 there has been a 93% decrease in human-grizzly bear conflicts in the project area as the grizzly bear population has increased in northwestern Montana's Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem—a nearly eight million acre area comprised of multiple wilderness areas and national forests. MT Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks estimates that the grizzly population in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem is expanding at approximately 3% per year. Additionally, grizzly bears continue to reoccupy former habitat on lower elevation private lands, yet conflicts with people remain low in the Blackfoot watershed. This success is largely due to the fact that people are willing to work together on this issue. This community-based project has involved hundreds of residents and ranchers and has pulled together a strong partnership among numerous wildlife management agencies, NGOs, and industry. NRCC has played a pivotal role in providing technical expertise, coordination, and funding that has helped implement dozens of proactive and participatory projects involving electric fencing of beehives and calving areas, regular livestock carcass removal, citizen based-monitoring of bears and wolves, and creating regular coordination and communication among stakeholders.

Wolves are proving to be a great challenge. Just recently, several livestock depredations by members of the Elevation Mt. Pack occurred in the Blackfoot and the pack was lethally removed from the watershed by the USDA's Wildlife Services. Despite intensive monitoring of livestock by a "Range Rider" that were in regular contact with this pack, multiple livestock depredations have occurred over the past two years and four members of the pack were removed in 2009. Ranchers in the Blackfoot are concerned about the increased wolf pack activity that has been observed since 2007. Currently four packs and approximately 25-30 wolves are living in the watershed. The Blackfoot Challenge has hired a seasonal Range Rider to monitor wolf pack activity and to help reduce the risk of livestock depredations. While this approach will not prevent all problems with wolves, it is an important way learn more about wolf behavior, monitor livestock, communicate regularly with the community, and take proactive steps when needed.

Blackfoot Valley Project Highlights

Livestock Carcass Removal: Throughout the 2010 calving season, hundreds of livestock carcasses have been removed from Blackfoot Valley area ranches helping to reduce the risk of livestock depredations from both grizzly bears and wolves. All livestock carcasses have been composted at a facility operated by the MT Department of Transportation. South of the Blackfoot, NRCC Research Associate, Seth Wilson has worked closely with ranchers, county commissioners, and the Granite Headwaters group to develop a livestock carcass removal program and a new composting facility to set the stage for a long term livestock carcass removal in an area that grizzly bears are expanding into and where wolves are present.

Electric Fences Continue to be Proven Deterrent for Predators: Electric fences continue to work well for Blackfoot area ranchers to deter grizzly bears and wolves from calving areas in late spring. NRCC helped construct two new calving area fences on Helmville area ranches (PHOTO-8453) and have protected calves across more than 12 different ranches in the valley where the risk of livestock loss is greatest.

New Fladry Deployment System Developed in Blackfoot: Over the past month, we have worked with Blackfoot ranchers, Jim Stone and Jim Bauer who have developed a new system to rapidly deploy and retrieve fladry, a type of visual fencing that deters wolves from pastures and reduces livestock depredation risk (PHOTOS-10331 and 10333). The system uses a custom built trailer and spooling system that is towed behind an ATV. This makes rolling out and retrieving fladry fast and efficient. Recently, Jim Stone set up nearly three miles of fladry on his ranch in just over two hours. We hope that these innovations will make fladry more rancher friendly and widely used across the region.

site map<http://www.nrccooperative.org/sitemap.html> | home<http://www.nrccooperative.org/index.html> | contact<http://www.nrccooperative.org/contact.html>

Northern