FWP provides updates and hunting proposals
THOMPSON FALLS – Grizzly bears, bobcats and walleye were on the agenda among other items as Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks members met with the Sanders County Commissioners on January 14 to provide a quarterly update.
Kim Annis, bear management specialist for FWP, presented the commissioners with $2,000 to go toward bear proofing a refuge site.
The grant came from the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation and is split in two ways. The money is to remain in Sanders County specifically and also goes for the purchase of bear-proof garbage containers for residences.
Currently out of the three refuge sites located in Trout Creek, Noxon and Heron all three have seen bear activity.
Bear proofing the sites would require the county to fence the area with electrified fencing, a project that can get quite pricey.
Right now the priority lies at the Rock Creek site because a family of grizzly bears has been in the refuge site. The site also has somewhat of an existing fence to work off of making the process a little simpler.
Fish Wildlife and Services Grizzly Bear Coordinator Wayne Kasworm, provided an update on grizzlies in the parks.
According to Kasworm, his organization plans to continue the augmentation process. Last year they moved one grizzly and the plan is to move another one to two this year.
“We’re looking at males. Part of the reason has to do with some of the issues with potential inbreeding and broadening the gene pool,” Kasworm said.
He stressed human caused mortalities are an important area of focus and the goal is to try to avoid the unnecessary killing of grizzly bears within the Cabinets and the Yaak area.
He is also continuing to promote the connections of populations to other bear populations.
“Those are some of the things that I see as opportunity to try to move forward on recovery for bears in this area,” Kasworm said.
Paul Fielder, county representative on the FWP Citizens Advisory Council for Region One, asked whether or not the recovery plan will be updated now that it is 21 years old.
Kasworm said that project is a couple years down the road because currently there is a lot on their plate. He explained there are two major delisting packages they are working on and although there has been discussion about revising the recovery plan for the Cabinet-Yaak and the Selkirk mountains, it won’t be any time soon.
“Quite frankly I don’t see us getting to the recovery plan. It’s on the list but I don’t think it’s going to happen for a couple of years,” Kasworm explained. “There’s a couple other alligators in the swamp right now.”
Currently Kasworm is working on the genetic data collected on grizzly bears and the line of heritages from hair collected from either hair corrals or tree rubs. By looking at this information he is able to tell where bears are moving to, if they are relocating.
Game Warden for Region One Tom Chianelli stepped up to the plate next and dove into a handful of issues.
Chianelli said there were 115 citations or charges in 2013, a quarter of which were written during hunting season.
At the time of the meeting, wolves and mountain lion harvest was a little light with 12 wolves in all and 25 mountain lions.
As for bobcat season, the story took a different angle. The season closed in 18 days total, filling the quota of 275 bobcats.
The season raised a handful of questions and issues that need to be ironed out.
Chianelli explained bobcats need to be reported within 24 hours of their harvest. However, when the quota is close to closing “a pile of cats” comes in within the last two or three days, sometimes surpassing the quota.
He wondered if cats were being called in on time or if people were calling them in later in order to keep the season open longer.
This year Chianelli and his crew went back to as many kill sites as they could to verify the location.
With a high price on their hides, the bobcat season has become increasingly more popular and that is where some of the problems may stem from.
Although Chianelli said there were no plans to put new regulations in place, they do plan on tightening up some of the loose ends to help ensure things run smoothly.
Wildlife Biologist Bruce Sterling then presented his findings on the 2013 hunting season.
According to Sterling, numbers in the check station were considerably down on elk and whitetail buck harvest was up 20 percent.
“It was a mixed bag season,” Sterling explained. “It wasn’t a bad season, it wasn’t a great season.”
According to a survey conducted at the check stations, 57 percent of whitetail bucks and 75 percent of elk were harvested from public lands.
A few proposals are in the works for the 2014 hunting season. Sterling said Whitetail B tags, which are valid only on private land may be put district wide.
Changes with the mountain lion season are also currently underway. Right now as the season stands there is a female sub quota and an open season for males. The proposal in the works is to switch those around. This would mean there would be a male sub quota instead and the remaining permits would be for female lions.
“The hope is that by doing that we’ll get an increase of female harvest, which will lower population,” Sterling said. The hope is also to keep some of the larger adult males from being “mined out” during the season.
The disadvantage to this proposal is that permit numbers would decrease.
The turkey season is also looking at some changes. According to Sterling, fall hunters will be allowed to harvest two turkeys and will also be allowed to use rifles. The change will be region wide and will reflect what much of the rest of the state already does.
Sterling also discussed the augmentation of bighorn sheep on Berry Mountain. The plan is to move in the neighborhood of 35 to 50 sheep from Wild Horse Island at the end of February to augment the herd.
Plans to augment the local herds between Thompson Falls and Plains will not happen until 2016 once the highway is redone. The highway will feature fencing to keep the sheep off the roadways similar to that in the Arlee area.
The next topic of discussion was fish in the Noxon Reservoir. Kenny Breidinger, FWP fisheries biologist, presented a report on numbers in the reservoir.
The trend FWP has seen for quite some time now is the general decline in forage populations and the increase of predator populations.
“Obviously that’s a concern. We can’t increase the quality of fish we have if there is no food left for them,” Breidinger said.
According to the trend graphs, northern pike, walleye and small and large mouth bass were at record highs or nearly record highs.
The bull trout population has also been on the decline. Breidinger said red counts were down for the bull trout but there is no need for alarm because red counts vary greatly from year to year.
As for walleyes, FWP plans to sample and kill 200 to 250 walleye a year in order to get a better idea of the age and size structure of the fish.
“We did have a number of questions about the reproductive potential of walleye,” Breidinger said.
The plan is to continue sampling into next spring. Fielder suggested fishing derbies be used instead so people with licenses can catch the walleyes. FWP would still be able to gather information from the catch.
In order to gather more information on walleye, FWP is working on contracting research projects to independent researchers.
The projects will look at what the situation would look like under two different management scenarios.
The first one would see how a suppression program would change the fishery, while the second would look at a no action alternative.
“We are hoping to have an EA revised draft done sometime next winter and have a decision notice prior to the start of walleye spanning in 2015,” Breidinger said.
The next quarterly wildlife update is scheduled for April 8 at 2 p.m.