FWP updates community on local elk study

Limberlost Brewery was packed with interested citizens last Thursday as Fish, Wildlife and Parks Wildlife Biologist Zack Farley gave an update on a local elk study.

“FWP started a three-year study in early 2023 to try to determine the cause of decline in elk harvests,” Farley said. He has been a biologist with FWP for one year. Thompson Falls is Farley’s first assignment. The presentation covered the areas of hunting district 121. “It includes everything northwest of Thompson Falls to the state line and up to Bull Lake, then north to the Cabinet Mountains and the Vermillion River,” Farley said. The study is looking at the reasons for a decline in elk harvesting. From the 1990s to present, a chart was displayed to show the changes over the years. It represents the decline in numeric or distributions of harvest, habitat, nutrition or predators. The elk were captured and fitted with radio collars. The collars are expandable and allow for growth. Data can be collected by air or on the ground. Airplanes have been used in areas where ground collection was too difficult. Aerial mapping is conducted in survey routes. There were 20 hours of data gathering in a two- to three-day period.

The first objective of the study has been to graph the elk population dynamics, female survival with calves and pregnancy rates. The collars send information if the elk dies and pregnancy rates can be monitored through blood tests. This decline started in 1986-87 and has leveled off in recent years, Farley said. Two known variables are the number of mountain lions – twice as many as wolves, Farley stated – and timber harvesting in elk habitat.

Objective two looks at vegetation monitoring. Forest fires, plant species compositions and protein content was tested along with nutritional value. Included is the information regarding the decrease in the timber harvested in Whitepine between 1995 to 2020.

The third objective was to estimate the abundance of vegetation. This was not determined as the canopy of trees made calculations difficult. The fourth objective has to determine elk distribution and the influences through the GPS collar data and camera data.

Data was collected on adult elk and juveniles. Eighty seven percent of the adult females were pregnant and healthy. Cameras were not baited, Farley said. They have been in place to see what the elk were eating. There were 119 cameras total with 89 of them being random and 39 were predator cameras that take videos every 10 minutes. The collars and cameras help with determining elk mortality and the consumption patterns of predators. Bears tend to peel their food like a banana, Farley said, while mountain lions will cache their food and wolves usually scatter their food. The department looks at tracks, scat, bite marks and more to find causes of death. “We can swab the bites for saliva to see what animal made them,” he added.

Neil Anderson, the Kalispell wildlife program manager, said even if scattered body parts are seen, it does not automatically indicate the killing was by wolves. The elk could have been killed by another predator and left for the wolves to find. That is why saliva tests are conducted. Anderson added that the human factor is the main cause of harvest decline. Both Anderson and Farley said that the elk are there.

There are several conservation easements in Sanders County, the biggest one being the Thompson-Fischer owned by the Green Diamond corporation. That easement has 142,000 acres. “The area looks like a checkerboard on the map in the Thompson River drainage and Fischer River areas,” Farley said. Green Diamond is a forest stewardship company. Conservation easements protect the land from development.

Another factor looked at in the study is the current human population increase in Montana. Between 2020 and 2022 there has been a 3% increase in population in the state, and in Sanders County the increase was 8.3%. “Acreage has been lost to development. While subdivisions are on the incline, elk habitat is on the decline,” Farley said. He said the management challenge is to hone in on what we can do, such as adaptive management. The study is being conducted over a three-year period. University grad students helped with the project which helped with the funding, but Farley said the project is too costly to be continued over several years. Karly Tellier and Trevor Weeks were two of the grad students present at the presentation. FWP has been partnering with researchers at the University of Montana for a comprehensive study of elk populations and habitat needs and land use that could benefit the elk.

Anderson said they like to work with the Forest Service on wildlife needs. This data collecting project gathers information that is specific for the Forest Service.

Farley said there have been several studies done across the state but so far FWP has not done a comparison with the results. “In the future we may look at the results from other places to compare things such as terrain influences on predatory harvesting.” The reports used in Farley’s presentation are available online at fwp.mt.gov. He can be reached at the Thompson Falls field office, (406)382-3031. Neil Anderson can be reached at (406)751-4585.