OUTDOORS REPORT
294
Number of bird species recorded in Montana.
Grizzly bears have fared so well in Montana and elsewhere under federal protection that they could be delisted in the next several years. ANNIVERSARY SURVEY FINDINGS
If you’re wondering just what chewed your shovel handle or work gloves, it could be a porcupine. These gentle herbivores are attracted to the salt from sweat left on tool handles and leather gear. They also like resins in plywood and will chew siding off sheds. The best deterrent is to cover chewed siding with light wire mesh found at hardware stores. Store tools, gloves, bridles, and other salty equipment inside. If porcupines are particularly pesky, use a large live trap to capture and move them several miles to another location. Because they are an unprotected species, they can also be lethally removed if necessary. n
40 years of saving species On December 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon Wildlife Division, notes that Montana holds healthy signed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) into law. populations of grizzly bears, gray wolves, wolverThe legislation came in response to public outcry ines, sage-grouse, and bull trout. “But because over widespread environmental degradation across these species have disappeared from other states, the country. Pollution and pesticides were blamed federal restrictions have been, or threaten to be, for declines in fish and wildlife species, including imposed on Montana,” he says. Still, McDonald says, the ESA has helped many the nation’s symbol, the bald eagle. The ESA was intended as the federal government’s tool to stop species that are in trouble even in Montana. species from going extinct. “Nothing is more price- “Probably the biggest thing is that the threat of less and more worthy of preservation than the rich [endangered species] listing brings landowners array of animal life with which our country has been and developers to the table with us and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,” he says. “At the same blessed,” wrote the president at the signing. Forty years later, has the ESA lived up to its time, we and the feds recognize that because so many species live on private property, ranchers promise? Proponents say yes. The legislation, still widely and others making a living off the land need to repopular across the country, has recovered several main economically viable and have incentives to notable species, including the bald eagle. At its conserve habitat.” A new USFWS program offers another approach lowest in 1963, the population had dropped to 417 breeding pairs in the entire lower 48 states. Num- to species conservation. Through the agency’s Canbers had rebounded to more than 10,000 breeding didate Conservation Assurances with Agreements pairs when the species was delisted in 2007. The (CCAA) Program, participating landowners agree act has also saved hundreds of other species from to specific habitat projects on their property. If the extinction and today provides a safety net for more at-risk species in question gets listed, they don’t have to do anything different from what they agreed than 1,400 species of fish, wildlife, and plants. Opponents say no. They argue that the law sti- to as part of a conservation plan they developed with fles free enterprise and compromises private prop- federal biologists for their operation. “Think of the ESA as an emergency room,” says erty rights. In the Northern Rockies, the ESA has been disparaged by many for allowing wolf popu- McDonald. “It works when it can address a trauma lations to grow and spread while under federal and stop a species from going extinct. But we want to avoid those emergencies in the first place. That’s management authority. The ESA has been a mixed blessing in Montana, why we’re advocating CCAAs and other conservasay FWP officials. Ken McDonald, head of the tion ‘preventive care’ with landowners.” n
8 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2013 FWP.MT.GOV/MTOUTDOORS
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE MORAN; JAIME & LISA JOHNSON; AP PHOTO/PETROS KARADJIAS; BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB; SHUTTERSTOCK; PUBLIC DOMAIN
Pass the salt
