Kootenai Forest Stakeholders hear grizzly report

Grizzy bears and roads were the high points of discussion at last week’s Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Collaborative board meeting in Libby.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service grizzly bear biologist Wayne Kasworm presented a variety of information.

Kasworm is the team leader for the Cabinet/Yaak Ecosystem Program.

He said there were three human caused grizzly fatalities in 2022, including two females.

One was an adult female that was struck by a vehicle on U.S. 2. The second female was one that officials determined needed to be removed after approaching a landowner on her porch at a residence in the Silver Butte area. The bear had been sprayed, but still returned and approached the landowner.

The male grizzly, 475 pounds, was shot and killed by a resident up Pipe Creek after it got into a chicken coop. The 15-year-old bear was born in the Yaak and had been moved into the Cabinet Mountain area. Kasworm said the bear had been captured twice.

“One of the problems was the bear was feeding on deer carcasses and ribcages which had been dumped near town,” Kasworm said.

Kasworm said the Cabinet-Yaak bear population was estimated at 60 to 65 in 2022. A 2012 survey determined there were 49 bears and allowing for an average growth of 1.6% per year is how officials came up with their estimate.

“We’ve been on the positive side since 2012,” Kasworm said.

Nevertheless, the estimated 65 grizzlies are still well short of federal official’s goal of 100 grizzlies for Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem. Wildlife officials also want to see more bear management units occupied by females with cubs. Currently there are 16 of 22 Bear Management Units occupied, but Kasworm said the goal is 18.

Kasworm explained that female grizzlies typically don’t breed until they are six years old.

“If the habitat is good and they have a good diet, they may begin to breed at age 4 or 5,” he said.

When a female does have young, the cubs typically stay with her until they are 2 1/2 years old so the bears are only producing new cubs every three years.

The veteran biologist also said officials had eight collared grizzlies, four males and four females, in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem before the male bear was shot last month.

There are four teams doing field work - two each in the Cabinet region and the other in the Yaak. Two work on capture bears while the others collect hair for the purposes of doing genetic studies.

Bob Castaneda, a former Kootenai National Forest Supervisor and current member of the board, remarked at the difficulties of moving forward in some forest plans when bears keep dying.

“To lose a bear makes it difficult to move ahead on a positive path,” he said.

Castaneda was specifically referring to the shooting death of a male grizzly bear in the Berray Mountain area. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks game wardens and officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the bear was found dead May 24 in the South Fork of the Bull River area near Berray Mountain Road.

Wildlife officials investigated the scene and determined that the bear had gunshot wounds and was killed on the evening of May 16. The adult male grizzly was collared for research purposes and had no history of conflicts.

When the discussion turned to roads, gated and ungated, several of the collaborative members chimed in.

Tim Dougherty said he wasn’t a big fan of gates because, “ATVs just go around them. I think obliterating the first 150 or 200 yards of road can work if they aren’t roads we think we need in the near future for fire suppression.”

But Kootenai National Forest Supervisor Chad Benson said, “rolling these roads up is not good for public use. Many people use them to haul game out on carts and a variety of things.”

Expanding the use of cameras as a tool to identify those who do ride ATVs behind gates was discussed.

U.S. Forest Service Libby District Ranger Nate Gassman said even in places where cameras are set up vehicles are seen without plates, “so making an ID isn’t possible,” Gassman said. “Gate infractions are not necessarily sought out, we find them more by happenstance.”

Trout Creek resident and coalition board member Doug Ferrell said increasing fines for motorized travel behind gates may help create more of a deterrent.

Kasworm said open roads and mistaken identity are two big issues when it comes to grizzly mortality.

“We do find dead bears behind gates and even in the wilderness, but not as many,” he said. “Grizzlies shot in mistake for black bears - unnecessary deaths - are what we really need to clean up.”

Someone suggested that Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks could require a more frequent test for those buying a black bear license. Currently, the test needs to be passed just once.

Kasworm said studies of the home range of female grizzlies showed a displacement of bears where roads are built.

“It’s not that they don’t cross roads, but they spend more time away from roads,” he said. “The majority of bear mortality occurs within 500 meters (a little more than one-third of a mile).

“It’s unfortunate that people don’t follow the law. The road is a great way for berry pickers, hunters and others to access the back country,” Kasworm added.

The Knotty Pine project was recently halted after a ruling by U.S. District Court judge Dana Christensen. His ruling was based on the project’s potential to harm the small population of grizzly bears. He also cited bear recovery targets for the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem as part of his rationale for halting the project.

“The ongoing chronic problem of ineffective closures and unauthorized motorized access is permanent,” said the court ruling halting the project. “Roads located near choice grizzly bear habitats can drive females with cubs to less favorable habitat, resulting in ‘lower cub survivorship.’”

Christensen said the U.S. Forest Service must determine better means of road management, and also address how the roads affect the bears in its logging project plans.

“The court does not intend to express any view on how the agencies should account for unauthorized motorized access going forward; the court must defer to the agencies’ expertise on that point. However, the agencies must actually exercise that expertise for their decisions to stand,” Christensen said in his ruling. “Claiming a total inability to ascertain, or even estimate, effects of unauthorized use (on the roads) and, by extension, effects of grizzly bears – despite the evidence in the record supplied by both the USFS and third parties does not suffice.”