By Seth Wilson
June 16, 2006 - Ovando, MT - During this year’s calving season in the Blackfoot you might have seen a large, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service truck wending its way through the valley each week. If you stopped and looked, you might have noticed that there were a few dead calves or cows in the back and you might have wondered what was going on. This effort is part of the Blackfoot Challenge’s Carcass Pick-Up Program designed to remove cows, calves, ewes, and other livestock from ranches that naturally die during the calving and lambing season so that carcasses are not found by foraging grizzly bears and other predators.
To a grizzly bear, a dead calf can be an enticing invitation and welcomed meal after a long winter’s sleep. MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Grizzly Bear Manager, James Jonkel, explains that, “After hibernation and around the first green up, bears travel to the lower elevations and are intent on finding natural foods. Carrion of any sort whether it is deer, elk, or livestock, are prized by grizzly bears. This can bring grizzlies down onto ranches in places like the Blackfoot.”
Livestock carcasses act as a strong attractant to grizzly bears and other scavengers. This can lure grizzlies into close contact to people, ranches, and vulnerable livestock anytime of the year but especially during the early spring. Grizzlies that are drawn onto a ranch because of livestock carcasses may be tempted to kill live calves or lambs or find other foods like grain, protein licks, pet foods, or bird seed, becoming an unwelcome and persistent visitor. The hope with this program is to not put out the welcome mat out in the first place.
In the Blackfoot watershed, a new partnership formed in 2002 to address human-wildlife interactions. One result from this collaboration has been the Carcass Pick-Up Program. The Blackfoot Challenge, MT Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Allied Waste Services (formerly BFI), and ranchers from Lincoln, Helmville, Ovando, Potomac, and Greenough have been working together to remove carcasses off of ranches since 2003. This year, the Natural Resources Conservation Service became a new partner in the effort by helping pay for a portion of the program through a Conservation Innovation Grant that was awarded to the Blackfoot Challenge in 2005.
Ranchers are asked to call a local contracted resident when they have a loss between February 15 and May 15. The carcass is left at the end of ranch road or in the bucket of a tractor for collection by contracted driver and local mechanic, Dan Massee. The carcasses are then hauled to the Allied Waste Services landfill in Missoula at no cost to ranchers.
This past spring, a total of 306 livestock carcasses picked up and removed. Participation by ranchers has also steadily increased by roughly 25% since last year. Preliminary evidence suggests that human-grizzly bear conflicts have decreased steadily since 2003 in the Blackfoot making the carcass pick-up program an important tool for Blackfoot ranchers. Originally carcasses were brought to a rendering plant in Missoula but that became too expensive and for the past three years, carcasses have been deposited in Allied Waste Service’s landfill in Missoula.
This year the cost of the program was approximately $14,600 for truck use/fuel, contract labor, and tipping fees at the Allied Waste landfill. The Fish and Wildlife Service donated nearly $1,200 in fuel for their truck; Allied Waste Services donated another $5,000 in cost-savings for tipping fees. MT Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks paid for all tipping fees and the Blackfoot Challenge and donations from ranchers and residents paid for all labor costs.
The program could not have worked without the trust and support of Blackfoot area ranchers. We thank all partners who have been involved and we will offer this program next year. Please contact James Jonkel at MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks at 542-5500 if you need a livestock carcass removed from the Blackfoot Valley between May 15 and February 15.
