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What’s New in the Cabinet-Yaak Region?
02/14/08
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·Sanitation Efforts
 Electrified fences were constructed around three Lincoln County dumpster sites. The first site was constructed for the town of Yaak in fall 2005. The second site is located south of Eureka at Glen Lake and was completed the fall of 2007. The third is now located in the community of Sylvanite, also in the Yaak. This was the location where a grizzly bear got into unsecured garbage at the green boxes in April 2007. It is the result of consolidating 2 former unsecured green box sites from nearby areas. These efforts were funded and facilitated by Claiborne-Ortenberg Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Lincoln County, Kootenai National Forest, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, National Forest Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Yellowstone to Yukon.
·Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Hires New Bear Biologist
 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has hired a Grizzly Bear Management Specialist for the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem. Kim Annis, an experienced bear management specialist who completed her master’s degree in human-bear conflicts, started in June 2007. She is based at the FWP Libby Field Station and is responsible for the conflict management, capture and handling of bears in Lincoln and Sanders counties of northwest Montana. She will be working with private propery owners, local and county government, and mining staff to reduce bear conflicts and human-caused grizzly bear mortalities.
Revett Minerals, the company that operates the existing Troy Mine and owns the proposed Rock Creek Mine in the Cabinet Mountains, supplied initial funding for the position. The funding is part of a cooperative effort with Revett Minerals, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, to begin implementing conservation efforts for the Revett Minerals Rock Creek Project. The mitigation plan also includes funding for bear monitoring, securing 2,450 acres of bear habitat, purchasing of bear proof garbage containers and the fencing of sanitation sites.
If anyone has questions about living with bears, has conflicts with bears, or is interested in educational programs about bears, they can call Kim at the FWP Libby Field Station at 406-293-4161 at extension 107.
·Update on the Cabinet Mountains Augmentation Grizzly Bears
In late September 2007 the radio collar worn by the augmentation bear released in 2005 was retrieved in a remote area of the West Cabinets. The cotton spacer had rotted away and the collar fell off the bear, as it is designed to do. Efforts were made in 2007 in the North Fork of the Flathead River to capture a young female, with no history of conflicts with humans, to be considered for a transplant to the Cabinet Mountains. However, a suitable bear was not found. Therefore, there were no bears translocated into the Cabinet Mountains in 2007. The bear released in 2005 developed a home range north of Keeler Creek and the bear released in 2006 primarily stayed south of Keeler Creek. We have had no public sightings reported regarding either of these bears since their release.
·Female Grizzly Killed in the Yaak
On September 22, 2007 two bow hunters reported killing a grizzly bear in the Spread Creek drainage in the Yaak. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service personnel responded to the report. The bear was an adult female accompanied by two young. Traps were set around the carcass of the adult female and a 2-year-old female grizzly bear was captured. Several days later, a second young female grizzly was captured and is apparently the sister to the first young female. They are both radio collared are currently being monitored. The adult female appears to have been previously captured based on the presence of ear-tag holes in her ears, although no ear-tags were present. This animal is likely a female that was originally captured as a yearling in 1997. Genetic analysis should confirm the identity of this animal. The incident underwent investigation by Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, & Parks and U.S. Fish & Wildlife law enforcement personnel.
·Grizzly Bear Family Captured South of Clark Fork River in Noxon, Montana
I n early September 2007 Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began receiving reports of a grizzly bear family group in an area southeast of Noxon. Biologists from both agencies responded by visiting the area, talking to residents and handing out materials about bear safety and tips on living in bear country. Several days later a resident reported the family group eating fruit from the trees in his yard. Even though no one reported that the bears had gotten into human food or had behaved in a threatening manner, it was decided to attempt to capture the bears as a preemptive safety measure.
In a cooperative effort between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, an adult female and two cubs-of-the-year were captured soon after traps were set. There was no indication the bears had been previously captured. The adult female was judged to be 8-10 years of age and weighed 260 pounds. The cubs were a male and a female and weighted about 80 pounds each. All bears were in good health. The adult female was fitted with a GPS radio collar and will be monitored frequently to determine her movements. She was released on September 19th in upper Marten Creek with both her two cubs. Genetic samples from these animals will be analyzed and compared to a genetic database to determine any relationships, but these results will not be available until 2008.
The female grizzly remained in the vicinity of the Idaho - Montana border until the end of the first week of October when she began moving back toward Noxon. On October 11th they crossed the Clark Fork River and Montana Highway 200 moving north onto Government Mountain. She was observed at several residences over the weekend, and in at least one case got into some dog food left outside. There were indications of a bear getting garbage at the Rock Creek garbage transfer station from a dumpster that was over full and not locked down. We are not sure if this was a grizzly bear or a black bear that was involved. The bear biologists with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service talked to many homeowners in the area to make them aware of the presence of the bears, urging everyone to keep attractants contained (garbage, pet foods, bird feeders, etc) and advised them the bears movements were being monitored daily.
 On October 15th she moved north into the Cabinet Mountains and traveled in the areas of the East Fork of the Bull River, the South Fork of the Bull River, and Berray Mountain. On October 20th the bear biologists monitoring this female discovered the collar was emitting a signal that specified the collar had stopped moving for several hours, indicating that the bear may had pulled the collar off or that the bear had died. They walked into the area to check on the collar but were unsuccessful in finding the location, as it appeared to move to different areas as they approached. In addition, the collars signal switched from a “mortality” mode to an “alive” mode, indicating that the bear may still be wearing the collar, but that the collar was not functioning normally. The following day the collars signal disappeared and they believe that the collar’s VHF transmitter may have failed. We will continue to search for this bear throughout the spring and summer of 2008.
What’s New in the Selkirk Region?
·Two Grizzlies Captured as Nuisances in Nordman, Idaho
In the Nordman, Idaho area a sub-adult male and an adult male grizzly were trapped this fall for management reasons. The sub-adult male was food-conditioned and habituated to people. The public had been feeding the bear corn and sunflower seeds, both intentionally and unintentionally. On August 11th he was trapped and radio-collared. He was then released the following day in Grass Creek, Idaho. The bear returned to the Nordman area by September 8th, 2007. Because of this bears extreme habituation to people, the decision was made to lethally remove the bear. On October 4th, 2007 he was shot and killed by Idaho Department of Fish & Game personnel.
The adult male bear was trapped on October 4th, 2007, also in the Nordman area, collared, and released in lower Grass Creek the following day. The bear returned to the Nordman area within a week, but did not appear to cause any problems. He is currently denned on the west side of Snowy Top Mountain in British Columbia, Canada.
·Three Human-Caused Mortalities in the Selkirk Region in 2007
There were three known human-caused mortalities of grizzly bears in the Selkirk area in 2007. An adult female was killed in a vehicle collision this summer on the east side of Kootenay Pass, British Columbia, Canada while crossing Highway 3. She had been previously trapped in Grass Creek in 2002 and was 10 years old at the time of her death. Black bear hunters killed a second adult female in the state of Washington during the big game season in early October 2007. The case is currently under investigation. A sub-adult male was shot and killed by Idaho Department of Fish & Game personnel in Nordman, Idaho area as a nuisance animal on October 4th, 2007 (see details above).
·Sanitation Efforts
 The Paradise Valley dumpster site was fenced in 2007. This site was the location of frequent black bear problems due to unsecured trash. In two years, Boundary County trapped and removed over 50 black bears from this location. Grizzly bears were never observed here but tracks were located within a mile of the site. Boundary County, in conjunction with grants from the National Wildlife Federation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, completed a fencing project in the spring of 2007. The site is now completely fenced and manned 7 days a week. The facility now has recycling bins in addition to dumpsters, something that was not available in the past. This will reduce the amount of unauthorized trash going into the landfill, reduce the flow of trash to the landfill, and provide a safer environment for people and bears.
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