Today, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the federal Endangered Species list. The Montana Wildlife Federation is pleased to see progress in recovery of this iconic species and urges state and federal officials to work together to ensure that grizzly populations stay strong over the long term.
“The recovery of the grizzly bear in Montana is a conservation success story,” said Dave Chadwick, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation. “When conservationists, wildlife managers, farmers and ranchers, and other interests work together to protect habitat and prevent conflicts, we can bring back an iconic species like the grizzly bear.”
“Now as we move toward state management, it’s vital that we don’t retreat and that we remain committed to the conservation measures that have allowed this iconic species to recover and expand its range.”
Grizzly bears in the region in and around Yellowstone National Park had fallen to fewer than 200 animals in the 1970s. The bear was listed as endangered in 1975, just two years after the ESA was passed. But bears continued to struggle.
In the early 1980s key federal land and wildlife officials joined with state wildlife agencies to adopt strict conservation measures to help bears. These included protecting key habitat areas, implementing food storage rules and proactive steps to avert bear-livestock encounters.
Today there are an estimated 717 bears roaming the three state region in and around Yellowstone. Bears continue to expand their range and grow in numbers as they move into historic habitat in the three states.
Chadwick said while grizzlies have come a long way, it’s important that we keep enacting strong conservation measures so bears can continue to grow in numbers in appropriate habitat.
“Removing a species from the Endangered Species list is not the end of the process, it’s just the beginning. It’s important that we move very thoughtfully ahead with state management and continue all the conservation efforts of the past few decades so bears will keep expanding their range into suitable habitat.”
Contact: Nick Gevock, MWF Conservation Director ngevock@mtwf.org>
To educate and inform the general public about hunting ethics, fair chase, and values; to perpetuate the sport of the hunt through efforts to conserve habitat and wildlife; and to stimulate the recruitment, mentoring, and involvement of youth in hunting and conservation activities.
The Phil Tawney Hunters Endowment honors the memory and perpetuates the legacy of the late Phil Tawney, lifetime sportsman and conservation leader. Phil’s passion and commitment to protecting Montana’s fish and wildlife and their vulnerable habitats began and grew as he chased waterfowl in the Bitterroot Valley and elk in the Great Burn and Cinnabar Basin, and cast his fly in the blue ribbon waters of the Big Hole River and Rock Creek.
Phil understood the complexities involved with keeping these and other resources healthy and, with each outing, rededicated his own conservation efforts. In keeping with the spirit of Phil’s legacy, the Phil Tawney Hunters Conservation Endowment offers $1,000 scholarships to students at accredited colleges or universities in Montana who exhibit a similar commitment to our outdoor heritage.
Wildlife Security Standards based on extensive research and decades of application that have proven effective, are being discarded for a collaboratively designed alternative that is not supported by Best Available Science.
The 61,395 acre Tenmile-South Helena Project Area, along with the 32,669 acre Telegraph Project straddle the Continental Divide and extends all the way from Helena to the Forest Service boundary just east of Deerlodge. Within this 133 square mile area, 32,411 acres (more than 50 square miles) would be harvested or fuels arranged for burning.
The following PowerPoint Presentation, developed from materials provided in the Draft Environmental Impact Statements for these two projects has been prepared by the Helena Hunters & Anglers Association to make the case against exempting these 15-20 year long projects from big game standards for hiding cover, winter thermal cover, and fall security.
Comments on the Tenmile-South Helena Project are due by April 1, 2016. Go to http://www.fs.usda.gov/helena/ and click on “Land and Resource Management” then click on “Projects” to find the TSH project DEIS and information on how to comment in the Cover Letter.
The Helena National Forest is rolling out a new amended standard that does not require any security cover during the hunting season. Flying under the radar has been a proposal to the change the security standard that has been in place for three decades.
Trees, officially, will no longer be necessary for big game security during the hunting season, according to the Helena National Forest. What has been a proven, science-based Forest Plan standard for wildlife security during the hunting season for 30 years, has involved a direct relationship between security cover and road density: the more roads within a square mile of public land, the more security cover for wildlife is required, and conversely less security cover is needed when fewer roads are present. But, at no time on public land has security cover been considered unnecessary — until now.
The existing old standard is based on decades of peer-reviewed research by dozens of wildlife researchers. There are no new studies that refute the long-standing science of wildlife security needs on public lands. That research focused on the need to reduce roads, but never did the science suggest that vegetative cover should be reduced as a component of security during the hunting season.
However, the decision has been made to amend the security standard to no longer require vegetative cover anywhere on the Divide or Blackfoot landscape that protects elk, deer, and other big game during the hunting season.
This insidious change is about to accelerate across national forest wildlife habitat, affecting fair chase hunting, and facilitating timber removal.
Montana wildlife can live in a dense forest without roads, but they cannot readily survive on treeless public lands with roads. And as wildlife find themselves less secure, they move to private lands where herds can no longer be managed through public hunting, where private landowners suffer game damage impacts, where commercialization of the public’s wildlife through outfitting too often becomes the landowner’s solution, and a frustrated public finds their favorite hunting spot in a new clearcut, devoid of big game.
On a variety of levels, the pending amendment to the big game security standard will have important consequences. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has agreed to the change in big game security if travel plans for the Divide and Blackfoot landscapes are implemented. But the consequences of treeless public lands will last for years and be manifest in game damage complaints. “Shoulder” seasons are now being implemented by FWP at the request of outfitters and some landowners to harvest wildlife displaced from what had been secure public lands. These “Shoulder Seasons” will occur on private lands – many of which have not been fully open to public hunting during the regular season, but before and after the regular season, elk will be pursued for up to 6 months – from August into February.
Denuding public land security pushes commercialization of wildlife into the hands of those who would “Ranch for Wildlife.” If they haven’t already, Montanans will soon realize that what happens to public lands will determine where public wildlife will end up, and whether they are privatized.
The decision to amend the Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest security standard is pending. But there is still time to have a long-term positive effect for big game security by urging FWP to help keep public wildlife on public land, and by advocating for big game security in Forest Plan revision on the Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest. Please, step up.
Gayle Joslin is a retired FWP wildlife biologist of 30 years, and member of Helena Hunters and Anglers Association.
Credit: U.S. Geological Survey. Photo By: Kim Keating
The National Wildlife Federation and partnering wildlife groups say the future of bighorn restoration depends on reducing the risk of disease by reaching agreements with sheep ranchers. With 39 of 46 Montana bighorn sheep herds at risk of disease passed from domestic sheep, this problem is the main obstacle to future restoration.
Contact between domestic and bighorn sheep exposes wild sheep to bacteria carried by outwardly healthy domestic sheep; these bacteria cause pneumonia, typically lethal to bighorn sheep.
While several factors influence bighorn sheep restoration, pneumonia is widely considered the most important limiting factor. Pneumonia outbreaks have the potential to cause 30-90% mortality of a bighorn population. Additional outbreaks continue to occur within a herd several years after the initial outbreak, affecting lamb survival. Once a herd is exposed to pneumonia, it is often continually affected, making it extremely difficult for the population to recover, much less thrive.
“We need to do more to protect bighorn herds from respiratory disease because population recovery is so much harder after a pneumonia outbreak,” said Tom France, Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation in Missoula.
The solution highlighted in the report is for hunters and other wildlife conservationists to work collaboratively with domestic sheep producers to reduce risk of contact. The report “Challenges and Opportunities for Bighorn Sheep Conservation in Montana” takes the first step toward doing that by identifying domestic sheep flocks within 20 miles of established bighorn sheep herds in the Big Sky State.
The risks are real. Last year, pneumonia outbreaks caused significant die-offs among bighorns near Paradise and Gardiner. Twenty-six bighorn herds in Montana experienced large die-offs between 1984 and 2015, with more than half of these die-offs occurring in the past decade.
“During winter 2009-2010 pneumonia outbreaks in the West, Montana bighorns took the biggest hit of any western state or province, losing an estimated 20% of our statewide total,” said Brian Solan of Helena, president of the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation. “In addition, many of those herds have not rebounded from that disease event and have continued to struggle with lamb recruitment almost seven years later.”
The worst-case scenario is playing out in the Tendoy Mountains of southwestern Montana, where a once-thriving bighorn herd has never recovered from a pneumonia outbreak in the 1990s. Via hunter harvest, followed by agency removal, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) managers are currently eliminating Tendoy bighorn sheep which still carry the disease, inhibiting population recovery. Once infected bighorns have been completely removed from the Tendoy Mountains, FWP’s goal is to start a new herd by introducing disease-free bighorns.
“Our mission is to put and keep sheep on the mountain, which means raising and spending millions of dollars of private money to translocate sheep, and trying to keep them healthy following release,” said Kevin Hurley, conservation director of the Bozeman-based Wild Sheep Foundation Conservation. “In putting and keeping sheep on the mountain, the Wild Sheep Foundation works closely with wildlife managers, domestic sheep producers, and sportsmen stakeholders.”
While there is no simple solution suitable to all situations, the wildlife groups urge increased awareness of the risk to bighorns, increased collaboration with producers and a multi-faceted effort to keep bighorns and domestic sheep separated in time and space.
“The good news is that win-win solutions exist that will make bighorns more secure; separation is the key,” France says. “We need to work together to keep wild and domestic sheep separated, or we risk one bighorn die-off after another.”
“Bighorn sheep are a symbol of Montana’s wild heritage, treasured by hunters and all Montanans,” said Kathy Hadley, president of the Montana Wildlife Federation. “This report lays out some of the key issues surrounding bighorn sheep restoration around the Treasure State. Tt also shows the importance of finding ways to work together with landowners who have domestic sheep if we’re going to restore bighorns into their historic ranges, grow their numbers and ultimately build more hunting opportunity for this incredible species.”
You can read the full report via National Wildlife Federation’s website Bighorns Big Risks
Jeff Lukas
Conservation Director
Jeff Lukas is a passionate conservationist who has been fishing and hunting his entire life. Whether it’s floating a small stream chasing trout, pursuing elk in the high country, or waiting in a blind for ducks to set their wings, Jeff is always trying to bring more people afield to show them what we are trying to protect. He loves being in the arena, and he will never shy away from conversations about the beautiful and unique corners of Big Sky country.
