Ranching Scene from Helmville

Living with Bears, Wolves and Elk
The Blackfoot is rich in wildlife that has disappeared from most of the country. Species like grizzly bears, wolves, mountain lions, and elk are controversial and require creative approaches to balance the needs of people and wildlife.  The Wildlife Committee works to improve management of human-wildlife interactions in the Blackfoot Watershed.

The Wildlife Committee formed in 2002 in response to existing volunteer efforts and a request by local fish and wildlife managers to collaborate on wildlife management strategies and solutions.  Increasing numbers of grizzly bears, wolves, and other predators using privately owned valley bottom habitat had created concern among residents as conflicts

Wildlife Committee Members

increased.  A landowner advisory group of eleven local landowners provides the Wildlife Committee with overall direction.  Through committee hosted meetings, workshops, field demonstrations, projects, and one-on-one visits, the Wildlife Committee works to solve problems that local residents care about.  The Wildlife Committee and our two main work groups, the Landowner Advisory Group and our Waste Management Sanitation Group, meet quarterly or more depending on need.

For more information about wolf conservation and management, please click on the following links:

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks: Wolf Conservation & Management Information

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Wolf Information & Weekly Reports

Key Partners

Current Projects

Carcass Pick-Up
Each spring, livestock carcasses are a key attractant for grizzly

Carcasses Being Dropped at BFI

bears on local ranches, elevating the chance for conflict particularly in riparian corridors.  To deter bears from visiting calving and lambing areas, two Blackfoot residents are contracted to drive to ranches, pick up carcasses, and transport them to the BFI landfill in Missoula without cost to ranchers.  Sixty-three carcasses were removed in 2003, 204 were removed in 2004 and 340 were removed in 2005.  Ranchers participation has steadily increased.  The program is making a difference as reflected in fewer human-grizzly bear conflicts in the Blackfoot watershed since 2003. 

Ranching in Grizzly Bear Country

Electric Fence Along Calving Area

The Blackfoot Challenge works closely with managers from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and private landowners to prevent human-wildlife conflicts by collaborating on projects such as construction of electrified, predator-deterrent fences around calving and sheep bedding areas and beehives.  We’ve also piloted a GIS mapping project with the help of local ranchers to locate attractants and develop a community-supported and scientifically-based plan to further reduce conflicts.  MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks are collaborating on this effort through data sharing and are providing expert biological consulting on the project.  While focused on grizzly and black bear conflict hotspots, the project may have transferability and application to other human-wildlife conflict issues involving species like wolves,

Example of GIS Attractant Map

lions, or elk.   

The Neighbor Network
We have organized more than 100 landowners into 9 “neighbor clusters” that are distributed in a network across the valley where the consistent grizzly bear activity occurs.  In coordination and under supervision of FWP, local volunteer coordinators use phone tree lists to alert their

Neighbor Network

neighbors to grizzly activity so that preventative actions can take place (e.g., removing pet foods from porches; taking down a bird feeder; putting the garbage in the garage; etc).  Under this new program, residents can check-out and borrow a variety of devices including bear resistant trash cans and 55 gallon to avoid problems.  We also check out non-lethal deterrent devices such as portable electric fence kits on an as-needed basis.  This program represents an important innovation in that techniques for living in grizzly bear country can be diffused by and for landowners.

BFI Bear Resistant Dumpster

Waste Management 
The Waste Management Sanitation Group has been effective in the Blackfoot largely due to the coordinated efforts of MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks, BFI, Living with Wildlife Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, the US Forest Service, and the Blackfoot Challenge.  BFI has been instrumental in providing leadership, financial support, and constructive ideas for our efforts and Defenders of Wildlife have provided important financial assistance on a variety of projects.  BFI has gone beyond being “just a good corporate neighbor.”  As of 2005, BFI has placed more than 85 bear resistant dumpsters in the Blackfoot Valley.  The work group has identified 5 key priority sites in the watershed and is working closely with the communities of Ovando, Lincoln, Seeley Lake, Helmville, and Potomac on a variety of waste management projects. 

Monitoring and Scientific Research 
Monitoring is a vital component of any applied conservation effort.  The work in the Blackfoot is being monitored with the help of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks who collect data on grizzly bear sign, human-bear conflicts, trapping locations, and bear activity in our project area.  Data are collected yearly and have been recently integrated into a GIS database to facilitate spatial monitoring for management applications.  These databases provides a baseline for measuring the increase or decrease in human-grizzly bear conflicts and grizzly bear activity over time and will help determine if our efforts are working. 

The Wildlife Committee has played a support role in assisting the US Geological Survey and other project partners on the largest population estimate study of grizzly bears in North America.  The study relies on non-invasive DNA sampling where hair from grizzly bears is collected from snagging stations set up on rub trees/objects or scent lures.  The Wildlife Committee has largely been active in helping provide information about the study to private landowners in the watershed and has assisted the USGS with logistics in terms of landowner contacts. 

As part of the GIS mapping project, data is also being collected from landowners on seasonal activity and movement patterns of the following species: 1) grizzly bears, 2) elk, 3) mule deer, 4) white-tailed deer, 5) wolves, and 6) mountain lion.  The data will be used to assist the Blackfoot Challenge in their Conservation Resources Database.  Our coordinator has also collected baseline information on landowners’ perceptions and attitudes towards wildlife that will be compared to conflict trends in future research studies.

Living with Predator Resource Guides
The Blackfoot Challenge has provided funding support to the Living with Wildlife Foundation and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for the development of educational guides related to living with wildlife.  These education guides concentrate on: 1) aversive conditioning techniques for bears and other predators, 2) recommendations for hunting and recreating in predator country, 3) bear-resistant products, like dumpsters and fences, and 4) electric fence design and testing protocol.  For more information, see www.lwwf.org.