CSKT Wildlife Management program receives conservation achievement recognition

POLSON - At the spring meeting of the Flathead Audubon Chapter, the Tribal Wildlife Management Program received the Chapter's Conservation Achievement Recognition.

The Tribal Wildlife Management Program was developed in 1988, contracted from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and began to initiate several wildlife projects. One of the best-recognized ongoing projects is the incorporation of numerous wildlife mitigation features into the Highway 93 reconstruction project through the Flathead Indian Reservation. After years of negotiations with Federal and State highway authorities, many wildlife and habitat-friendly features were incorporated into the design on newly reconstructed portions of Highway 93. Bridges now span the entire riparian area, not just the water, allowing uninterrupted wildlife movement corridors in vital riparian zones. The completed project will include approximately 50 large wildlife crossing structures. Less noticeable are fencing and underpasses to allow large and smaller wildlife to safely cross the highway. All of these features will preserve wildlife habitat connectivity and help to reduce animal-vehicle collisions.

Another widely known and visible project is the restoration of trumpeter swans on the Reservation. The swans are often visible from wildlife viewing areas at wetlands along Highway 93. Other successful wildlife restoration projects include peregrine falcons and northern leopard frogs. Bighorn sheep herds started in 2 locations on the reservation have increased and now provide a hunting season and a source of transplants to other areas.

About tow thirds of the Tribal Wildlife Management Program staff are involved in the Kerr Dam wildlife mitigation program. The Program is heavily involved in implementing the approved mitigation on over 8000 acres of replacement wildlife habitat through acquisition, rehabilitation, restoration, and management.

Grizzly bear conservation has always been a strong cultural and ecological interest of the Tribes; the Tribal Wildlife Biologists conduct regularly scheduled grizzly surveys and are cooperating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to gather movement and habitat use data using a GPS collar on a grizzly.

Regular surveys are conducted for bald eagles, amphibians, birds, and bats. The Tribal Wildlife Management Program was instrumental in developing survey techniques for forest carnivores that were later applied across the Northern Rockies.

Program staff uses satellite telemetry to track migrating common loons, have conducted a comprehensive Columbian sharp-tailed grouse habitat analysis, and maintain an ongoing evaluation of amphibian populations.

For more information on the TWMP contact Dale Becker at 883-2888.