Tag Archives: Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks

Montana FWP: Grizzly bear management update for Northwest Montana

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Cinca - 5 May 2015

Here’s the latest report from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on the status of grizzly bear management in this corner of the state . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks grizzly bear management biologists and wardens have seen an increase in grizzly bear activity and conflicts during the month of September. Both black and grizzly bears are looking for food that will provide them with the layer of fat they need in order to survive the winter in their dens. Female grizzly bears with young are especially in need of additional food because they have been nursing their cubs and need the extra calories.

The following is an overview of the grizzly bear management activities that MT FWP has been involved with in the Tobacco, Flathead, and Swan Valley areas during the month of September.

Near Eureka, at least one young grizzly bear has been observed feeding on apples and walking through yards. Traps were set for that bear, but it hasn’t been captured yet.
West of Fortine, landowners buried a dead horse and noticed something had dug it up. They put up a trail camera and 3 different grizzly bears were photographed. One of the grizzly bears was wearing a radio collar that isn’t functioning properly. In an attempt to capture that bear and change the collar, two culvert traps were set. The horse was reburied and an electric fence was installed around the site along with remote cameras. On September 6th, an unmarked, young adult male grizzly bear visited the site and was captured. This male was radio-collared and translocated into the Whitefish Range. The radio-collared grizzly we were attempting to capture did not return to the trap site and the traps were pulled.

During that same week, a grizzly bear was breaking branches on fruit trees west of Lake Blaine. A temporary electric fence was installed and a culvert trap was set. The male grizzly bear returned, but was not captured. The electric fence was effective in preventing any additional damage to the trees and the trap was removed.

Right after Labor Day, an adult male grizzly bear was captured near Coram after killing chickens and eating apples. The 473 pound, 12 to 14 year old adult male grizzly had never been captured before. He was radio-collared and translocated to the Puzzle Creek drainage south of Marias Pass. The electric fence on that chicken coop has been upgraded to be more effective in deterring bears.

Continue reading Montana FWP: Grizzly bear management update for Northwest Montana →

Montana FWP: Update on efforts to trap black bear Involved in attack on a woman west of Kalispell

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Black Bear

This tragedy is proving to be a real object lesson on why people should not feed bears.

From the official press release . . .

According to FWP Investigator Brian Sommers, the investigation into the black bear attack on the elderly woman in her residence between Batavia and Ashley Lake is continuing. The investigation to date shows that the woman was attacked inside her residence, that she was actively feeding bears, and that numerous bears have been frequenting the property.

FWP set traps to capture the bear involved in the attack and to address the hazard of food-conditioned bears roaming in a residential area. Over the past two days, two food-conditioned black bears were captured and euthanized at the residence. The two bears were anesthetized and then euthanized. Necropsy performed on the bears revealed extensive artificial feeding of sunflower seeds and millet. One young female black bear weighed 99 pounds, and an adult female weighed 162 pounds. Investigators believe that neither of these bears were the one involved in the attack.

According to Bear and Lion Specialist Erik Wenum, who performed necropsies on the bears, the evidence is clear that someone in the area is still feeding bears. “Someone is hampering our investigation by continuing to extensively feed bears, making our efforts to attract and trap the offending bear that much more difficult.” He noted that large amounts of millet and sunflower seeds were found in the digestive tracts of both bears.

Sommers note that people feeding bears can be cited for obstruction of an investigation. He pointed out Montana Law prohibits feeding of bears. Sommers further states that bears that are fed become habituated and food conditioned which can lead to aggressive behavior and the inability or desire to fend for themselves once the supplemental feed is removed. This in turn can lead to bears breaking into buildings, trailers and vehicles in search of food producing a large public safety issue. The act of breaking into structures or vehicles and endangering humans, pet, or livestock is grounds for removing the bears from the system.

Continue reading Montana FWP: Update on efforts to trap black bear Involved in attack on a woman west of Kalispell →

Montana FWP: The effects of fire on animals

Environmental Issues, Fire Information and Status, ,

Here’s a timely news release by Bruce Auchly of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks discussing the effect — direct and indirect —  of fire on animals . . .

Summer’s fires are over, right?

All that smoke-in-the-nose, ashes-in-mouth is past for the year. Or so we hope.

Yet even in the worst of it many of us had choices. Some folks left Montana, others sought relief in air conditioning at home or office or both.

Animals don’t have those luxuries. Yes, birds can fly and bears can burrow into a den, but fires in July and August happen at the wrong time for migration and hibernation.

First, let’s slay a rumor. The rash of bear conflicts, mostly black bears, this summer is not because smoke from forest fires was forcing bears out of their mountain redoubts and into towns. They are just farther afield this year looking for food.

Continue reading Montana FWP: The effects of fire on animals →

Montana FWP wildlife biologist Gael Bissell retires

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The Daily Inter Lake has a nice profile of Gael Bissel, a well-regarded wildlife biologist who recently retired from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks . . .

Chances are you don’t know her name, but if you’ve ever hunted state lands along the Thompson River Corridor, reeled in a fish from the streams of the Swan River State Forest or simply savored the natural beauty of the Bull River Valley, you ought to thank Gael Bissell.

Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, Bissell officially retired earlier this month after a 31-year career as a wildlife biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, having had a hand in nearly a quarter of a million acres of wildlife habitat conservation.

Working behind the scenes with myriad public and private partners, she helped secure a combination of land purchases, donations and easements throughout Northwest Montana worth approximately $120 million.

Read more (paywall) . . .

Montana cuts bobcat quotas

Environmental Issues, News,

Bobcat numbers have dropped, so Montana FWP has reduced the hunting quotas . . .

Montana wildlife officials have reduced quotas for bobcat hunting and trapping across a broad swath of central and northern Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioners on Thursday approved a proposal to lower the quota in three regions of the state by a combined 190 animals.

The move came after agency officials said they’d seen a drop in bobcat numbers in those areas. The decline is considered a cyclical population shift, but wildlife officials have said they don’t want to exacerbate the drop through hunting and trapping.

Read more . . .

Grizzly bears active in Beartooths

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Grizzlies continue to extend their range . . .

Red Lodge resident and hiker Grant Barnard is not worried that there have been more grizzly bear sightings southeast of town this spring than in decades. That’s because he used to live next door to Glacier National Park where he was “constantly surrounded” by the big bruins.

“I’m glad they’re coming back,” he said. “When we first moved here 20 years ago, I was told there were no grizzly bears. The only one I heard about was shot by a rancher.”

This year along the eastern face of the Beartooth Mountains there may be close to about 24 individual bears, most of them southeast of Red Lodge, said Shawn Stewart, a wildlife biologist with Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Red Lodge. “We have so much activity going on southeast of town that we almost add a new dot to the map every day,” he said.

Read more . . .

40 years with grizzlies

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Well, here’s the end of an era. Rick Mace is retiring . . .

In 1976, University of Montana student Rick Mace walked into his adviser’s office to inquire about classes he needed for his bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology.

He left the office with a summer job researching Northwest Montana’s newly protected grizzly bears. That was the beginning of a nearly 40-year career for Mace as one of the region’s top grizzly experts.

Now, with the Crown of the Continent area home to a robust, growing grizzly population and removal of the bears’ Endangered Species Act listing in sight, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife biologist is bidding adieu to a lifetime spent working to understand the great bear.

Read more . . .

Montana transitioning from wolf monitoring to management

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Kent Laudon, a Montana FWP wolf expert, retires as the state shifts from wolf recovery to management . . .

With gray wolves recovered in Northwest Montana, the state wildlife agency’s role has been moving from species monitoring to management, including hunting.

One of the biggest elements of that change is the departure of Kent Laudon, the region’s top wolf expert who retired Friday after a decade spent trapping, tracking and monitoring wolves in the Northwest Recovery Zone, which roughly spans the top half of Montana’s Rocky Mountains.

He started working for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks as the regional wolf management specialist in 2004, tasked with determining how many packs are in the area each year and how many wolves are in each pack.

Read more . . .

Federal bull trout recovery plan released for public comment

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Bull Trout
Bull Trout

The feds released a draft version of their plan for bull trout recovery yesterday, starting the clock on a 45-day recovery period . . .

The draft master plan for removing bull trout from Endangered Species Act protection was released at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, after 16 years of work and protracted legal battles.

“What we’ve tried to do with this approach over previous approaches is focus on what we believe are the highest priority conservation actions that need to occur,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bull trout recovery planning coordinator Steve Duke. “It won’t make the best life possible for bull trout, but where we know something will have an impact, we’ll react to that.”

The FWS plan is out for 45 days of public comment. It must meet a court-ordered settlement deadline for acceptance by Sept. 30. Two previous plans developed in 2002 and 2004 were deemed inadequate.

Read more . . .

Additional reading: Draft Bull Trout Recovery Planning Documents

Researchers start their Spring round of grizzly bear trapping

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Personnel from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will be live-trapping and collaring a couple of grizzly bears in the North Fork area over the next few days. So, if you see the warning signs, stay clear of the sites. . .

Here’s what Rick Mace had to say . . .

The grizzly bear population monitoring team would like to capture and radio collar a couple grizzly bears in the NF Flathead River starting in the next few days. We would be working both on Forest Service and private lands.  All of the Forest Service sites would be off of the existing open road system as we have done in the past. All sites will have approved signs and we will obviously avoid any active timber sales and trail heads.  Most of our sites have been used now for many years without incident.  We anticipate capture sites in Trail, Red Meadow,  and Moose Creeks. Also we may work off the main North Fork Road near Mud (Garnet) Lake going towards the border.  We would like to run the capture program for a maximum of about 10 days depending on success, starting later this week.