Living with Predators on the Ranch
Ranching just south of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex has given us a front row seat to the recovery of Grizzly Bear and Wolf populations over the last few decades. When I was in grade school sightings of grizzly bears and wolves were fairly rare. Now we’ve had confirmed depredations from wolves each of the last two years, and grizzly bear sightings (by someone on ranch) are a weekly occurrence in the summer. We’ve watched them expand their regular range from the outskirts of the Bob Marshall, to Ovando, to Helmville, and now south to Drummond. As I write this I’ve bumped into a Grizzly sow and her two cubs three times in the last two days as I’ve been trying to irrigate the meadows near the ranch office, and our neighbor just bumped into 3 sub-adult grizzlies at our shared irrigation diversion on Nevada Creek.
Last month, as I’m sure all of you have heard, there was a tragedy in nearby Ovando, as a woman was pulled out of her tent and killed by a Grizzly bear while she was camping in the center of town. Conflicts between people and bears are increasing across the state, and depredations from both wolves and bears are increasing for ranchers.
With many of these conflicts in the news recently, it seemed like a good time to share our experience and approach to living with predators on the ranch. The recovery of these animals is both a growing success story and a challenge as we learn how to live alongside these animals.
A Grizzly Sow and two cubs on the Mannix ranch. Video taken in 8/2021.
Our Philosophy - Recognize and respect the diverse values of others, while managing for the long term health of our land and resources.
In general, our philosophy is that as we work in this landscape, we need to acknowledge and respect the diverse values that the greater public has for the resources we manage. We graze on public land leases. We have taken on public partners in our conservation easements. We want to have the public support what we are doing, to want us to be here, even if our values, beliefs, or strategies don’t completely align. Even if we didn’t care as much about a specific species of wildlife or type of habitat on the landscape, it would be important to us that others do.
As for wolves, bears, lions and other large predators, we have respect for these animals, and the people who care about them. I know I personally feel a measure of awe when I see or hear them out on the landscape. They are amazing animals, and a testament to this place still being wild and ecologically intact. It is an experience that I hope that my kids and grandkids can continue to have. As a family, we definitely don’t want to see these animals gone or endangered. We also recognize that the public as a whole values these animals, and that they are likely here to stay whether ranchers want them or not. So we are doing what we can to manage our ranch in a way that reduces conflicts with large predators, while providing the open space and habitat for them and the wildlife they depend on.
However that being said, we do sometimes worry about the effect they’ll have on our way of life. We acknowledge that our mitigation strategies won’t always work, and do support reasonable management of these animals when necessary. We also hope that the public will recognize that the burden of allowing these animals to flourish doesn’t fall equally on everyone, and will work to understand the perspective of ranchers, farmers, and other rural people.
A wolf on the ranch that uncharacteristically hung around long enough for a photo.
A grizzly and uncle Brent ponder each other.
Managing to reduce conflicts between Carnivores, People, and Livestock
In our area, we have been fortunate to have the leadership of the Blackfoot Challenge in promoting strategies to reduce conflicts between, people, livestock, and carnivores. They have, with their partners, sponsored programs such as the carcass pickup program and the range-riding program, and have helped with funding for and design of other mitigation strategies that are in use on ranches around the watershed.
Carcass pickup Program
Ranches raising livestock inevitably have animals die, especially in calving season. Historically these animals would be taken to on ranch “bone piles” to decompose naturally. However as predator populations increased these locations became major attractants, and led to many wildlife conflicts. In 2002 the Challenge spearheaded a carcass pickup program, which we still participate in, as do 90% of the other producers in the Blackfoot River watershed. During calving season, a truck picks up carcasses of dead animals around the watershed twice per week, and takes them to be composted at a department of transportation site. During other parts of the year, we are able to bring the animal in to the ranch, store it somewhere out of reach of predators, and make a call to have the animal picked up to be composted within a few days. This program has led to a marked reduction in human-grizzly conflicts in the watershed, even though conflicts are again on the rise with increasing bear and wolf numbers.
Learn more by checking out the on the left, or visiting the Blackfoot Challenges website.
Range Riding
In addition to the carcass pickup program, the Challenge helps support a range riding program, which our ranch participates in. (Jordan Mannix, who works most of the year on the ranch, also works part time as a range rider) This involves monitoring predator activity on the landscape through collars, game cameras, and tracking, and increasing human presence near livestock herds in the summer months. The human presence may deter predators from approaching livestock, collects valuable info about predator activity on the landscape, helps ranchers improve management, can detect depredations earlier when they happen, and increases communication and trust between wildlife managers and ranchers.
Check out a little game camera footage from the Range Riding Program!
Others
In addition to programs like the ones above, there are many other strategies being put in place on ranches throughout the watershed. The Baucus ranch, which brings sheep out to graze on our ranch each year for weed control, uses livestock guardian dogs and herders who live with the band of sheep to protect flocks out on the range. Some ranchers in the watershed having trouble in calving areas have put up electric fences and fladry, which is basically a line with colored flags on it, to keep predators away from smaller sensitive areas. Electric fence can be put up around other attractants, such as mineral storage, grain bins, or orchards. Groups such as “People and Carnivores” have helped with funding for bear proof garbage cans in many places on our ranch, and others in the watershed. We also think that some management techniques such as having cattle in higher densities, while not always possible, may help with depredations. We are all continuing to learn and improve!
What to do when conflict reduction strategies fail.
Despite our best efforts, there will always be times when there are still conflicts. Historically bears/wolves that were unable to capture food or territory might have starved to death or been killed in competition with other predators. Today, animals that are desperate have entire other food sources to turn to. It is inevitable that some of them may turn to preying on livestock, or breaking into other human food sources. It is also not realistic to think that people living in rural areas will ever be perfect in removing all attractants, or using all mitigation strategies. We think that when predators get habituated to livestock or people, that lethal control should be an option. The bear in Ovando was a good example. Although there was no evidence that this bear was particularly malnourished, wounded, or otherwise compromised, it was clearly a problem bear. Within the days before and after killing the woman, the bear broke into RV campers, broke into chicken coops, and caused other problems. It was clearly not safe to leave that animal on the landscape, or move it to another area. As long as we are making efforts to reduce conflicts before they happen, the numbers of predators that are euthanized is relatively small, and populations of these predators are healthy and stable or growing, lethal control of a few animals will have little impact on overall populations. In the meantime, it makes those of us living and working in rural communities safer, and helps us not to feel helpless.
A few thoughts to help you understand the perspective of farmers and ranchers on predators
We think this is really important for ranchers and wildlife advocates to work to understand each other, so it makes sense to me for us to use this platform to share a little about our perspective, and the perspective of other ranchers we know and work with.
I think it is important to understand that the burden of living with predators is not shared equally. People living in town don’t have to worry as much about predators, or do as much work to prevent conflicts as people in rural areas. And beyond people just living in rural areas, people who work on ranches and farms bear an additional burden. It takes work and money to build, and then maintain, electric fences and fladry. It takes work to monitor livestock, adjust management plans, haul away dead livestock promptly, etc. Ranchers must bear financial losses from depredation and livestock stress. And in areas like ours with lots of bears, we have to think twice about going to work daily without bear spray, or a gun. It can be stressful.
Additionally, the burden between ranchers is not at all shared equally. For example, many ranchers just do not have large populations of predators in their area. And on our ranch, while we have many predators in the valley, has been very fortunate, and we have seen relatively few depredations (Even compared to some other ranches in our valley who are participating in the same conflict reduction programs) Meanwhile, in some areas, despite many of the same efforts to prevent conflicts, there are many more predation losses. It is difficult to know why. In some areas maybe it is due to even higher predator populations. In other areas, maybe they are just more aggressive, have learned other behaviors, or have fewer options of other food sources. Either way, while some ranches lose no or minimal animals, and suffer very manageable financial loss, others can be hit so hard that it can threaten their entire operation and way of life. If we collectively want more of these animals on the landscape, I hope we can think about ways to help areas and individuals who bear more of the cost.
A calf on the ranch that survived a grizzly attack.
Grizzly bears do extensive digging in the meadows for roots of Caraway and other plants
Don’t Ranchers get compensated for livestock losses?
Sometimes when I talk to people who are not in ranching, there is a perception that ranchers are mostly compensated for predator impacts through livestock loss board compensation payments. In reality, these programs come up far short of making some ranchers whole.
First of all, producers are only reimbursed for livestock that a wildlife biologist can confirm was killed by predators. So if an animal is never found, or is found long enough after death that it is no longer possible to prove it was killed by predators, then they are not compensated. Finding and documenting a predator kill within days can be very challenging. I know we went years without having a single confirmed kill, even while we were missing more animals when we brought them home from summer grazing areas than before, and a few animals would come home with some pretty horrific wounds from bear or wolf attacks they survived. (Again, we have been fortunate, and losses on our ranch have been very manageable) In addition, some livestock loss compensation funds are running out of money from increased claims.
A second problem of compensating ranchers for losses is that animals that are killed and eaten are not the only losses. Predators can push animals out of some grazing country, decreasing pasture utilization and available grass. Cattle that have a lot of predator pressure can be under stress, which causes animals to gain less weight, or fail to breed. For ranchers selling calves by the pound, that can have large financial impact, and many ranches struggle to be profitable in the first place.
Finally, it does not reimburse ranchers for the extra work and stress. As we mentioned before, most of the predator mitigation strategies mentioned above come with extra cost, work, maintenance, and mental energy. Most producers feel responsible for and care deeply about their animals, and losses can be emotionally hard. Some worry about their spouses or children getting hurt. Predator concerns can even lead to large scale management changes, such as when and where to calve, that can have large impacts on workload and the bottom line. (We have been looking into moving our calving season later for both economic and environmental reasons, but have some concerns about whether it will lead to more predator conflicts and depredation) Producers do get some financial help installing some of these tools and some financial reimbursement for predator losses, but some of the work and stress is more difficult to compensate.
In conclusion
None of this means that we think all predators should be removed from the landscape. We agree that preventing conflicts in the first place is far better than dealing with them once they arise. We hope that we can continue to learn and improve so that people, ranching businesses, large predators, and other wildlife can flourish on our landscapes. We hope that wildlife advocates, sportsmen, ranchers and farmers will learn from each other and work together to achieve common goals.
In the meantime, we hope that people will consider ways to help those most impacted. There are some good ideas floating around out there. Some states offer a multiplier, paying ranchers for several times the value of each confirmed kill to compensate for likely additional unconfirmed losses. Some are interested in collecting more money, in the form of licenses, fees, taxes etc, from areas with lots of wildlife tourism, such as National parks. This money could be used to help especially hard it areas or producers. It could also fund additional wildlife mitigation programs such as livestock loss programs, range riders, carcass pickup programs, or just more biologists and employees for entities such as the Fish and Game and U.S Fish and Wildlife who educate the public, manage programs, and respond to depredations. We should absolutely continue to fund and support the adoption of programs such as the ones the Blackfoot Challenge sponsors. (The current programs are funded by a combination of support from the Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Challenge, local businesses, the department of transportation, and participating ranchers. )
Whatever we do, partnerships and collaboration will be crucial! So thanks again to all of you who following along and care about these issues.