The Confluence Fall 2020
From The Director Dear Friends, Autumn has fully arrived in the Swan Valley. Leaves of the aspen and cottonwood trees have turned golden and are falling away in the breeze. As the season progresses, the larch needles will do the same. Snow dusting the peaks of the Swan and Mission Mountains will soon be piled on the valley floor. It’s the season of reflection, preparing for winter, and giving thanks. We’ve taken the last quarter to reflect on the work we do at Swan Valley Connections. As part of a strategic planning process, we’ve surveyed the conservation needs on the landscape to guide the future of our organization. We’ve worked with landowners to address their forest health, wildlife habitat, and fire safety needs. We’ve made another bear resistant trash canister order for our loan or purchase program, networked with neighbors to reduce attractants through the Flathead Fruit Gleaning Facebook page, and welcomed the Living with Wildlife Foundation as a partner with the Swan Valley Bear Resources team to keep recreationalists informed and safe. We’ve had several work days on the Elk Creek Conservation Area and our newly acquired quarter-section in the heart of Condon to develop aspen stands for the future, address noxious weeds, put up new signs, and revise management plans. We’ve created online educational videos and hosted live Zoom presentations in lieu of our potlucks. We also just hosted our second successful Master Naturalist class. And there’s so much more to do. We’re excited to continue working, reflecting, and planning, and we look forward to brighter days on the horizon in 2021. Everything we do involves people and partnerships for both a resilient landscape and organization. In this issue of The Confluence, we are highlighting some of the people we are thankful for this season. You’ll hear about inspiring founders, active alumni, partners in fire adaptation, our important volunteers, and more. It’s the people who have the greatest impact on our landscape. We’re all in this together. We certainly did lose expected revenue in this difficult year, but as we prepare for winter and the upcoming carnivore monitoring season, we are especially thrilled to give thanks for our partnership with the people at the Cinnabar Foundation, who have awarded grants to us for 17 consecutive years. The Cinnabar Foundation shares our vision of healthy, resilient ecosystems and communities, and we know you do too. Join our “Wild for Wildlife” campaign, where we’ll be highlighting the vast array of wildlife in our special ecosystem here in the Swan and within our connected landscapes, and the work we do to conserve and live with them. Through the end of November, we aim to raise at least $20,000 to end 2020. The Cinnabar Foundation will match your donation dollar for dollar, up to a total of $10,000 to help us reach our goal! Every donation will have double the impact if you can give by Thanksgiving, and we and our cherished wildlife will give thanks to you! As you settle in by the fire to read about our people, may you reflect on this wild and wonderful landscape, give generously to conserve it, and give thanks that this special place exists. Warmest Wishes,
Rebecca Ramsey, Executive Director
Swan Valley Connections 6887 MT Highway 83 Condon, MT 59826 p: (406) 754-3137 f: (406) 754-2965 info@svconnections.org
Board of Directors Barbara Hill Raible, Chair Helene Michael, Vice Chair Rich Thomason, Treasurer Kathy DeMaster Larry Garlick Alex Metcalf Casey Ryan Mary Shaw Scott Tomson Tina Zenzola
Emeritus Russ Abolt Anne Dahl Steve Ellis Neil Meyer
Advisory Council Kvande Anderson Steve Bell Jim Burchfield Mark Schiltz Andrea Stephens Mark Vander Meer
Staff Rebecca Ramsey, Executive Director Andrea DiNino Leanna Grubaugh Sara Halm Luke Lamar Mike Mayernik Rob Rich Uwe Schaefer The Confluence is published by Swan Valley Connections, a non-profit organization situated in Montana’s scenic Swan Valley. Our mission is to conserve the intact ecosystems within and surrounding the Swan Valley and to strengthen the connection between people and the natural world through collaboration and experiential learning. Images by Swan Valley Connections’ staff, students, or volunteers unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved to Swan Valley Connections. Change service requested.
SwanValleyConnections.org Cover Image: Sara Halm at Community Firewood Day 2019 by Andrea DiNino
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SVC Board of Directors Chair Barbara Raible, Cinnabar Foundation Executive Director Gary Wolfe, and SVC Executive Director Rebecca Ramsey
Stay tuned to learn how the visions and missions of the Cinnabar Foundation and SVC are aligned and to view some new, never-bef0re-shared wildlife footage from around the Swan Valley. We’ll be sharing both from now until Thanksgiving! And please consider making a gift that will double both in value and in impact, while helping to preserve this wild and wonderful landscape.
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Our Hours: SVC’s Legacy of Volunteer Stewardship Continues at the Elk Creek Conservation Area By Rob Rich While five-gallon buckets brimmed with sloshing water may be a close challenger, t-posts are some of the most awkward things to be carried. At just over 10 pounds apiece, with studded, irregular edges and sharp anchoring wings, schlepping one of these 8-foot steel specimens to a fence project is an unwieldy affair. Add in some uneven floodplain terrain, and the fact that most of us underestimate pinched fingers and balance points while trying to carry more posts than we should, and you have all the ingredients for an exasperated “sheesh!” upon releasing the cargo – whether that occurs by intention or mishap. And so why, you might ask, did Swan Valley Connections (SVC) order 188 of these clunky tools? Why would 11 volunteers (volunteers!) give up a Saturday to haul them around? Why would Anne Dahl – the day before one of the backpacking trips she cherishes so much in retirement – choose to extricate old t-posts from stony soils so that they could be reused or replaced? For answers, we must go back at least 30 years, when the section of land where these t-posts were driven was a cutover floodplain, logged by the Plum Creek Timber Company and left without a name. With the passage of Montana’s Stream
Management Zone law in 1991 – which aimed to protect the vulnerable, critical habitat where land and water meet – these 640 acres were unlikely to yield lumber again. They soon became added to thousands more acres that Plum Creek aimed to sell off at a pace and scale of such divestment that it shocked local people to realize: They cared. Sometimes for different reasons or different goals, but they cared enough about the same land to have tough conversations about its future. And through that process, they realized this parcel, so vital to diverse fish and wildlife, was a priority worth protecting. In partnership with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Swan Ecosystem Center purchased the section in 2006, and the Elk Creek Conservation Area (ECCA) was born. Never mind that ECCA’s founding success helped catalyze the conservation of 310,000 acres in more cohesive, public ownership as part of the Montana Legacy Project; the ECCA in itself was – and remains – a gem of common ground. Anne Dahl helped turn talk among neighbors into action, and when she stepped up to lead the Swan Ecosystem Center as its first Executive Director in 1997, the ECCA played a centering role in her efforts to build the culture of collaborative, local stewardship that we strive to uphold to this day. At the ECCA, Anne empowered passionate educators like Diann Ericson to engage local kids in hands-on stream education, expanded the land’s influence with a supportive community, and forged partnerships across boundaries with some of the finest conservation experts around. Thanks to support from the Montana Watershed Coordination Council and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, SVC held two volunteer-driven workdays this summer to carry on this legacy. The first of these workdays, on June 13, focused on the removal of houndstongue, a pernicious invasive plant that is poisonous to wildlife. The second of these workdays, on July 11, focused on the repair, removal, and replacement of fence exclosures designed to deter overbrowsing and benefit establishment of shrubs like willows, aspens, and cottonwoods. And both workdays were driven by a shared, core goal: to restore diverse native, woody plants, with volunteers, in the ECCA floodplain. It will likely take centuries to fully restore dynamic structure to the Elk Creek floodplain, but with volunteer help, it takes seconds to see changes begin. For the first workday, as soon as we stepped off the road, it was clear that we were pulling houndstongue in historic channels of the creek; where the water was, the weeds now grew. But with more than 15 With quiet tenacity and compassionate leadership, Anne Dahl is one of the Swan Valley’s conservation champions. In the course of drafting its vision with neighbors and realizing those dreams on the ground, Anne has given the ECCA decades of her time, thought, and heart.
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From neighbors to board members to recent graduates of our college and Master Naturalist programs (eager to apply their knowledge), our crew of volunteers knows how to weed ‘em and reap! people over 6 hours, we prevented thousands of new plants from going to seed. At the second workday, the positive regrowth of willows and cottonwoods protected by fencing in previous years inspired us to do the same for the next generation, as did the maturing spruce, planted in the moist microclimates of stumps from trees cut a few decades before. Those were also the spruce trees that caring volunteers watered with sloshing, five-gallon buckets to ensure they’d get a good start. The Elk Creek Conservation Area did not have to exist. It does exist because people, over the long term, have cared about it enough to give it their time. Nonprofit organizations like SVC would financially collapse without these volunteer contributions, which are monetized in Montana at a rate of $23.09 per hour, a value that is crucial for us to receive grants and advance our mission. But there’s also a value when we realize, together, that the land itself is a gift that we cannot take for granted. Our hours spent stewarding natural habitat restores people, too, and we’re thankful for volunteers who are willing to endure tough conversations, long hours in summer heat, and heavy t-posts for the reward of healing land, a treasure that will outlast us all. Rusty Sydnor, Restoration Botanist with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (left) rolls out fence with community volunteer Bruce Richardson. With others like Mark Vander Meer, of Watershed Consulting, Rusty has played a longtime role on the management team improving watershed health at the ECCA.
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All Tracks Led Here: an Alumni Spotlight with Bruce Montgomery By Andrea DiNino Our meeting was postponed due to a call that came in, giving Bruce Montgomery vague details about a dead animal in a hog trap over five miles into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park backcountry, near the Appalachian Trail – something that required him to investigate. The traps aren’t supposed to be active until winter, when visitor traffic has slowed and the potential for conflict with at least some predators has lessened thanks to hibernation. Given that Great Smoky Mountains is the most-visited national park, with land that hosts the highest black bear density in the lower 48, it’s easy to understand why conflict mitigation is a high priority. The 11+ mile hike ended up being a wild goose chase, with no animals found, but at least it was a beautiful day to be in the woods. Bruce Montgomery’s days as a Wildlife Technician for the National Park Service are far from predictable, and they’re dictated by these calls that come in over the radio. Some days are quiet until 8 PM, when a call comes in about a woman feeding chicken nuggets to a bear on the side of the road, requiring Bruce to go help dart and relocate the bear. And some days are stacked with action from 8 AM – 12 AM, perhaps hiking in to close a backcountry shelter that a bear was attempting to enter (while people were in it), only to get back to base and receive a call for support in a search and rescue mission involving people trapped in their car, which is somehow in a river. Bruce is exactly where he was always meant to be, but for a long time, he didn’t realize he was headed there. Growing up, Bruce’s father was in the U.S. Marines, so his family lived in different coastal towns until his parents divorced and he moved to Ohio with his mother. There, he
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spent many of his childhood days in the woods, pretending he was on grand adventures in far-off landscapes, thick with large carnivores. As a kid, Bruce’s knowledge of careers related to wildlife consisted only of game wardens. He knew he didn’t want his work to revolve around enforcement, but his love for the natural world and admiration for wildlife continued to grow. Around age seven he began hunting with his uncle, trailing along with BB gun in hand. These early days would eventually lead him to solo hunting and backpacking trips across the American West and volunteering for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in hunting and fishing education. The woods continued to be his place of adventure and his place of meaning and healing. Bruce aimed to follow in his father’s footsteps, and pursued a position in the Marines, but a number of obstacles and one chance encounter-turned-opportunity led him to join the U.S. Army as an engineer; this detour lent itself to friendly rivalry between him and his Marine Corps father (that banter is still alive and well today). After spending years in the military, Bruce went back to school in Denver and chose to pursue an ecology degree. Still without knowing what his career options really were and being fed discouraging information such as, “There are no jobs in this field,” and, “Biology jobs are actually boring desk jobs,” he wasn’t sure where to go next. But one day, an intriguing flyer for a field-based semester called Wildlife in the West caught his eye and led him to the Swan Valley. There was no question; he had to get there. While in the Swan, unexpectedly, years of an amorphous desire shaped by love of the outdoors, hunting, and wild places suddenly sharpened into a laser-focused goal. The path opened before him, with the necessary steps and likely
challenges accepted: Bruce would work in human-bear conflict management, and more specifically with grizzlies in the West. Looking back, it became clear that all of his choices, challenges, steps, and missteps led him here. “I didn’t realize I had been a naturalist my whole life until I came to the Swan,” Bruce said. “I trapped, I hunted…my entire life I was doing things that would make me competitive in this field when it came time.” Bruce asked every biologist he met with during Wildlife in the West the same question – “How do I get from where I am to where you are?” He often received the same or a very similar response, which, summed up, stressed the importance of saying yes to opportunities as a wildlife tech. He was encouraged to look back east, a place he wasn’t interested in due to its lack of grizzlies, but after learning about the amount of human-black bear conflict there and the respected bear biologists who came from the area, he was sold. Starting at the bottom didn’t deter Bruce, nor did the fact that he’s a bit older than some of his fellow, recently graduated techs. His time spent in the military taught him the importance of being a team player, and he learned how to be a good student by being a leader. Now, as he follows the full-time techs around the park, he knows the best way he can support them is to do what they ask, in the way that they ask, and to always ask himself, “What’s the next thing they’re going to do?” so he can be ready before they are. It’s not all wild-goose-chases, dart-shooting, and river rescues, although inner, 7-year-old Bruce is overjoyed on those days. Some days, it’s picking up stale Graham crackers off the “A fed bear’s a dead bear” picnic table plaque and just trying to educate visitors on how to be more “bear aware.” Back in his military days, Bruce actually started hunting bears. He remembers filling one tag with “the perfect kind of bear that you’d want to shoot” – an old boar, who had lived a long, good life in the Alaskan wilderness. After that bear, he continued to hunt but would find himself within 60 yards of the animal, sitting in awe and admiration, with no desire to shoot. Bruce remains a passionate hunter and plans to take his young nephew on his first big game hunt this fall. And while it’s easy to reminisce back to Bruce’s beginnings and wonder where his nephew might end up, one thing is for certain: Bears and Bruce are just meant to go together. Opposite page: Bruce learning about wildlife radio telemetry from MT FWP wolf biologist Wendy Cole during Wildlife in the West 2019. Right (top): Bruce meeting livestock guardian dogs during Wildlife in the West 2019. Right (bottom): Bruce assisting in the relocation of a black bear in Great Smoky Mountains National Park this past summer.
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Conservation is Wild
Alumni Profile with Julie Cunningham - Wildlife Biologist, MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks By Rob Rich
In the early 1990s, girls from Omaha, Nebraska couldn’t join the boy scouts or go camping, but at least one of them enjoyed reading about the Mountain Men. The mountains captivated her more than the men, and because Missoula seemed like a place for the wildlife and landscapes she read about, the young Julie Cunningham (née Fuller) found her way to the University of Montana. It was there, as a freshman in 1998, that Julie’s wide eyes chanced upon a flyer for a unique course: Winter Field Studies, with Northwest Connections. Her parents might have thought, after Julie had already gone so far from home, that the extra 90 miles for a class – to camp on the snow in the wilderness – were not worth it. But she knew those miles were valuable. She paid her own way for the singular experience in hands-on field ecology, and her class began outside in the snowiest place she’d ever seen. For instructors, she had Tom and Melanie Parker, visionary co-founders of a fledgling organization taking a fresh look at how humans and other animals might live better, together, in a wild place. For classmates, there was a middle-aged man from Vermont, and a hardy, 67-year-old local lady named Sue Cushman, who was curious to learn more about her adopted home. It was a motley crew, but in her own way, Julie was curious about what being a Montanan meant, too. She ended the class with more questions than answers, but she left with a sense that her journey had truly begun. Julie returned to the Swan Valley the following summer as Northwest Connections’ first intern, assisting whitebark pine
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research for the legendary U.S. Geological Survey grizzly bear biologist, Kate Kendall. The project also involved partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain trail on the way up and on the way down to the subalpine tree plots. “We had a Pulaski in one hand and a clipboard in the other,” she described, “and the GPS at least nearby, frustrating as they were to unscramble in those days.” Throughout the summer, Julie also peeled logs for the new cabin at the Beck Homestead, surveyed frogs in water howellia wetlands, and engaged in countless other tasks, affirming that conservation blurs stereotypes of all kinds. When I asked her how, she remembered Posy, the logger who earned his nickname because he was respected for his unrivaled knowledge of wildflowers. Julie calls the time that followed her “wandering years,” as nomadic as they were persistent in their quest to contribute to the increasingly complex field of wildlife biology. From black-footed ferrets in eastern Montana to turkeys in Texas to box turtles in Arizona, she became a vagabond volunteer and seasonal work seeker, aiming to understand all kinds of creatures with all kinds of methods. And while she now reasons it must be harder for today’s generation to live out of a van as she did, she recognized the trials, uncertainties, and joys of pursuing a wildlife career are much the same. She chose to further up her skills and knowledge with a master’s degree from Montana State University, where she started off studying wolves and elk, and finished out her thesis on bison. Being adaptable set her up for
success, and Julie quickly learned that these American bovines were endlessly fascinating creatures. Given the bison’s cultural significance and ecological distinctions, Julie left Montana State steeped in wildlife conservation’s greatest mantra: the hardest species to manage is often the Homo sapiens. After a few more stops and detours, just when it seemed that she might be permanently destined for temporary gigs and school, Julie landed with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, where she now works as Wildlife Biologist in the Bozeman area. It may sound like an idyllic ending, and she loves her job, but it’s not always idyllic, and it’s certainly not the end. Each day is different, and Julie is constantly learning in a changing climate, figuratively and quite literally. “I’m negotiating a place for wildlife in a landscape where people live, work, and play,” she says, “and protected areas, necessary as they are, are not enough.” Julie focuses on hoofed animals these days, and for these roamers and the carnivores who follow them around, healthy habitats in public ownership must be matched and linked with proactive stewards on private land. “Conservation is pretty wild,” said Julie, reflecting on how much has changed since she first came West over 20 years ago. Sometimes the change has been in loss, others in gain, but almost always for the increased complexity. Julie credits her time in the Swan for helping her to see what might be possible. We have a long way to go in wildlife conservation, but she still believes Montana’s animals (including humans) and their habitats are worth the extra mile.
Measuring out a marten track in her 1998 Winter Field Studies class, Julie began to sense the path her own life would take.
“I’m negotiating a place for wildlife where people live, work, and play, and protected areas, necessary as they are, are not enough.” Some of Julie’s work days are quite handson, as when releasing bighorn sheep to Wolf Creek so they can repopulate a historic winter range. Though less exciting than in the photograph, her desk jockey days are no less important, when she may be answering emails from sportsmen or advancing a conservation easement that will protect a family ranch (and its wildlife) from development. Photo by Richard Horst
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Phone a Forester: Private Land Stewardship Resources in the Swan By Mike Mayernik Owning property in the Swan Valley is a treasured opportunity in a cherished place. Private landowners in the Swan are lucky to be surrounded by extensive public lands. With the Mission Mountains Wilderness to the west, Bob Marshall Wilderness to the east, and thousands of acres of Swan River State Forest and Flathead National Forest lands, there are wild forests and managed forests, plus wildlife, lakes, wetlands, and clear streams. And trees! Lots and lots of trees! But tucked in between them all, mostly in our valley bottom, are special private lands, where we live, work, and play. From views of snow-capped ranges to meadows where elk herds frequent to wetlands alive with birdsong, the private lands in the Swan are some of the most diverse and wildlife-rich areas in the valley. I regularly visit with private landowners on their little pieces of heaven with Swan Valley Connections’ Forest Stewardship program. Every forest acre is different, and every landowner has unique ideas and views of their forest. Some like the views of an open forest and some prefer a cabin tucked in the shaded woods. Some landowners do regular timber projects on their land, while others may be new to the area and wondering
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what to do about fire risk. Whatever the situation, they might not have all the answers to support their management goals. SVC is here to help landowners ask the right questions, and to support them with resources to steward their forests. Landowners are often interested in SVC’s cost-share fuels reduction program, which is a grant-funded program to help forest landowners reduce wildfire risk on their properties. Currently, SVC has funding available through the U.S. Forest Service and Montana Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) to help pay for these projects on private land. (If you have any interest or questions about this program give us a call!) Other times on my site visits, landowners are curious why a tree or group of trees is dying, or sometimes they just want advice on what they should or could do to improve the health of their forest. On these visits, it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful and important these private lands are. Some of these parcels are where streams converge and meet the Swan River. Others are wetlands or wet meadows lined by bear trails heading to the best berry patches and foraging areas full of lush vegetation. Some also hold beautiful forests of everything from big old growth western larch and ponderosa pines, to wet and dark western red cedar groves and everything in between. Swan Valley Connections can offer support and advice on some questions regarding these topics, but there are also other experts out there to help private landowners. Who else is available for forest management goals, forestry, or streamside questions? Service Foresters with the Montana Department of Natural Resources (DNRC) can also support landowners to meet their forest objectives by offering free one-on-one consultation and advising. As trained experts in both the policy and practice of forestry and land management, they ensure loggers and landowners adhere to Best Management Practices (BMPs) and the Montana Streamside Management Zone (SMZ) law. When commercial logs are sold to a mill, the contractor or landowner also has to talk with a Service Forester to get a Hazard Reduction Agreement (HRA), which aims to reduce the wildfire risk associated with commercial logging activity. Service Foresters also help landowners develop forest stewardship plans and create forest treatment prescriptions or timber projects. They can help find contractors who will fill the needs of the landowner and can offer information on costshare programs for things such as fire risk reduction or weed spraying. Service Foresters can help with weeds management, tree planting, forest insects and disease questions, grazing practices, and wildfire risk reduction recommendations. Allen Branine was the DNRC Service Forester in the Swan Valley for 21 years until his retirement just last year, after 32 years with DNRC. He worked with many different landowners in the valley over the years and his warm smile and two fluffy Keeshond dogs, Wally and Cheyenne, became widely known and loved. Not only was he a great resource for private landowners, but he was also a wonderful resource for SVC.
Allen conducting a tree stand examination with his trusty sidekicks, Wally and Cheyenne right behind him.
One snowy and cold day a few winters back, I joined Allen on a site visit to a property here in the Swan. The landowner was curious how much timber volume was in a particular stand of stunted lodgepole pine, and he was considering a treatment. So, Allen and I donned our snowshoes, and with Allen’s pups trailing behind us, we waddled through the foot or so of fresh snow, with more coming down, to the stand of timber. We did some plots, measured tree heights and diameters, aged some of the trees, and collected some other measurements. After getting the necessary information we headed out of the woods, and Allen returned to his office to plug the data into a formula, which gave him some volume estimates. He then touched base with the landowner to give him our findings and helped him decide how he wanted to proceed with that particular stand. This is just one example of the ways that Allen supported landowners over his long DNRC career; he now continues to help people in the area as the chief of the Swan Lake Volunteer Fire Department, but his regular presence will be missed, and we wish him the best in retirement! Jack White has taken over the DNRC Service Forester role for the Swan Valley, in Missoula and Lake Counties. He is located at the Swan River State Forest near Goat Creek and can be reached at (406) 754-2301. Jack is extremely knowledgeable about the forests and management options here in the Swan Valley and is here to help. We look forward to working with Jack on future land management projects on private lands here in the Swan.
take ownership in the stewardship of their land is extremely rewarding. The site visits where I get to help a landowner go from having a high fire hazard property, to having defensible space around their home, good access for firefighters, and a healthy resilient forest, is a really great feeling. And when I have doubts or landowner questions that I can’t answer, I call the Service Forester for support or encourage the landowner to do so to keep the education and stewardship of Swan Valley private lands going strong.
To find the Service Forester in your area, visit: http://dnrc.mt.gov and search “service foresters.” For me, in my role with SVC, there is nothing more satisfying than helping a landowner who calls us because they know little about the current condition or ecology of their forest and want help. Then after helping them with a fuels reduction project, or offering other advice, seeing them empowered to
Allen, Mike, and MT DNRC Forestry Assistance Specialist Ali Ulwelling at one of our previous community potlucks on “Protecting Your Home from Wildland Fire.”
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The Natural History of Tom-isms By Sara Halm
Photo by Locke Hassett
The printing of this newsletter comes on the heels of Swan Valley Connections’ (SVC) second Montana Master Naturalist course. After at least 40 hours of identifying species, interpreting landscape patterns, and illuminating ecological relationships with an official host organization like SVC, participants can earn their Master Naturalist certification, which they maintain through continuing education and volunteer service. As a first-time instructor for the course, I was eager to inspire our participants’ curiosity and cultivate their sense of place. As SVC teachers, these are the transformations we live for. And this course, originally designed by Rob Rich and Laura Cannon, exceeded expectations, both the students’ and my own. It also reminded me that studying natural history is not only a practice of connecting to a place. It can also strengthen our connection to people. Our course stresses that certification can kickstart and
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complement the lifelong pursuit of inquiry and observation, for we know that becoming a naturalist is not a title acquired through reading a textbook or memorizing Latin names. Naturalists reflect on and ask questions about their surroundings. Inside each of us is a naturalist, and sometimes all we need is a mentor to draw that inner naturalist out. There are a handful of local naturalists who I admire and feel lucky to have spent time with in the woods, but I’m particularly grateful to know and learn from Tom Parker. Tom (also known as TP, and “Midnight” or “Mooselegs” Parker to those who know him best) has a long legacy of conservation in the Swan Valley. He played an integral role in founding both of SVC’s parent organizations and is deeply passionate about education. Tom’s knowledge of and love for the Swan Valley partly stems from his experience as an outfitter and guide. I can remember first meeting him as a Wildlife in the
“If ermine weighed 200 pounds, you wouldn’t go out in the woods.”
West student nearly a decade ago, when I was struck by his seemingly never-ending knowledge about his surroundings. Tom is a born teacher. His explanations of ecological relationships are incredible tapestries woven from personal stories, keen observations, scientific studies, and quirky, humorous euphemisms, also known as “Tom-isms.”. During last week’s Master Naturalist class, as I held up an ermine skull and explained the tiny, yet ferocious predator’s adaptations, I heard TP’s voice in the back of my head — “If ermine weighed 200 pounds, you wouldn’t go out in the woods.” For the field portion of their animal tracks and sign day, I took the class to a series of wetlands to investigate some mysterious digging. To get to these wetlands, we had to make our way over downfall and through thick brush, or as Tom would say, “That country was so thick a bird wouldn’t fly over it.” After exploring the wetland and studying the clues around them, the class concluded that a grizzly bear sow and cub had been digging up hemlock water-parsnip (Sium suave) and foraging on the tiny roots. This scene again reminded me of Tom and the overarching theme of many of his natural history lessons: all things are connected. Time and time again, Tom reminds us that creatures as big as grizzly bears depend on the numerous and tiny yet complex relationships all around us. And as naturalists and conservationists, it’s our job to recognize and protect this complexity, a task nobody can do alone. As TP would offer, “It’s a big world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.”
Tom Parker, at home in the mountains, during his outfitting days.
Opposite page: Tom Parker participating in a wildlife ecology course in 2013. Above and to the left: Sara instructing our 2020 Master Naturalist students during macroinvertebrate day at Elk Creek.
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Swan Valley Bear News How Does SVBR Decide Where to Focus Its Efforts? By Luke Lamar
The mission of Swan Valley Bear Resources (SVBR) is to offer community resources to promote human/bear coexistence in the Swan Valley. SVBR is a collaborative working group comprised of members of Swan Valley Connections and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in partnership with Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks (FWP), Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other non-profit partners and local residents. By pooling resources and expertise, SVBR has been able to mitigate bear conflicts on both public and private lands. By working together over time, we have created a long list of available services: helping private landowners construct electric fencing or loaning a bear-resistant trash can, installing bearresistant food storage boxes at USFS campgrounds, patrolling campgrounds to pick up trash, offering education events like the Bear Fair, and so much more. One might wonder – with so many services to offer, how do we prioritize where to focus our valuable time and energy with limited funding? According to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s 2018 Conservation Strategy, between 2000 and 2015, 80 percent of known grizzly bear mortalities in the Swan Valley occurred on either private land or by automobile. With that knowledge, it is not surprising that SVBR’s response has been to reduce and/or secure bear attractants on private property. In some situations, bears may have been spending more time along highway corridors and were potentially hit and killed by vehicles due to unsecured garbage cans along the highway or unsecured attractants near residential areas. According to FWP’s 2019 Grizzly Bear Management Report for Region 1 of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, once a bear conflict has occurred, identifying and
properly securing bear attractants usually solves the problem. The most common attractants that bears get into are poultry, garbage, bird feeders, pet food, and fruit, all of which can easily be secured. Ideally, by securing attractants before a bear finds them, people can help prevent conflicts before they occur! All 2019 Region 1 bear captures due to conflict management actions occurred on private property. From 1993-2019, there were 456 management captures in Region 1. The highest category was dependent young (96), who were captured during attempts to trap females. The next highest category included grizzlies being around homes, depredating domestic animals, and accessing feed for domestic or wild animals as well as fruit (224 total). There were an additional 22 captures related to bears getting into garbage. These leading categories combine for a whopping 75 percent of total grizzly bear captures during this timeframe! This is why SVBR focuses so much of our time and energy working with private residents to secure bear attractants around their homes: because the data shows this is where bear conflicts and related mortalities occur most often. Private lands host critical habitat and connectivity that are often found in valley bottoms, where riparian areas and fertile soils produce favored, natural grizzly bear forage. By securing unnatural human-associated bear attractants like garbage or chickens, we can prevent bears from becoming habituated and conditioned to human attractants. Once a bear becomes conditioned to human attractants, it can lead to unsafe encounters or property damage, and bears being removed by agency management specialists. Need help picking the fruit off your orchard trees before the bears do? Connect with willing volunteers on the Flathead Fruit Gleaning Facebook Page!
A bear had tipped over this non-locking garbage can and received a food reward. SVC staff responded and helped clean up the garbage and brought the resident a bear-resistant trash can. Highway 83 is in the background. Photo by Luke Lamar
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DID YOU KNOW that you can contact Swan Valley Connections for a free bear-resistant garbage can, help with designing and constructing electric fencing, free property consultations for advice on how to secure various bear attractants, or help in the event of a bear conflict? Please contact us at 406-754-3137 or email luke@svconnections.org
This dumpster was tipped on its side recently by a bear at the SVC office, but because it is bear-resistant with a locking mechanism on the lid, the bear didn’t receive a garbage reward.
Below: MT FWP grizzly conflict management specialists Tim Manley and Justine Vallieres (along with SVC’s Luke Lamar) electrifying a local homeowner’s shed that’s used to store horse grain. Reasons for capturing and handling management grizzly bears 1993-2019. Source: FWP Grizzly Bear Management 2019 Annual Report NCDE Portion of Region 1.
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NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID CONDON, MT PERMIT #16
6887 MT Hwy 83 Condon, MT 59826-9005
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upcoming events Due to current circumstances, all in-person gatherings are to be determined based upon most current COVID-19 related information. Please check our website or call (406) 754-3137 for the most up-to-date information. And stay tuned for more online content and presentations!
October 14
Grizzly Ecology and Conflict Management Zoom Presentation with CSKT Wildlife Biologist Kari Eneas
October 19
Elk Creek Conservation Area Public Tour
November
Zoom Presentation - Stay Tuned!