By Kayla Heinze, Communications and Outreach Coordinator
Whether you’re a red squirrel caching mushrooms, a grizzly fattening up before denning, or a person putting up holiday decorations, we all prepare for the future in one way or another—especially this time of year. Vital Ground’s field season proved no different. We stayed active on the landscape this fall with restoration projects and conflict prevention partnerships to invest in the future of key conservation areas like the Swan Valley.
South of Glacier National Park and bordered by the wildlife strongholds of the Mission Mountains and Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Swan is a crossroads for grizzlies, rare carnivores like Canada lynx and wolverines, and many other native species that depend on open spaces. Because of this, it is a place where the call of coexistence is especially imperative and where our vision of a permanently protected and connected landscape for wildlife requires investing in the longevity of both physical and social habitat. Partnering with landowners and local community groups to enhance wetland habitat and secure attractants in the Swan, we prepared for winter by working toward a resilient future for both people and wildlife.
Restoring wetlands for future resilience
With the sunrise illuminating the Swan Range and the peak-gold larches and aspens against a backdrop of blue, you’d think our eyes would be skyward. But for our morning of restoration at Salmon Prairie we had them firmly focused on the dirt. In 2023, Vital Ground partnered with conservation-minded landowners and Montana Freshwater Partners (MFP) to permanently protect this site with a voluntary conservation agreement. A year later, after lots of thoughtful planning, I was up to my neck in reed canarygrass helping enact our vision of enhancing the ecological integrity of Salmon Prairie’s precious wetlands. Along with Leah Swartz of MFP, the landowners, an earthwork contractor and a riparian restoration specialist, we dug into the muddy ground to start sculpting a new future for this piece of land.
The wet meadow section of the Salmon Prairie site where we trudged through thick canarygrass had been previously used for agriculture, which allowed for this altered constitution of plants and resulted in a channelized stream. These conditions made it possible for the invasive reed canarygrass to become a dominant plant, as it is at some of our project sites elsewhere in the region. Rhizomatous and good at crowding out native wetland plants, we were working this fall to manage the stubborn grass with the goal of increasing native plant abundance and biodiversity.
On our day of playing in the dirt we created five dams, using willow cuttings and sod, to mimic beaver ecosystem engineering and promote seasonal flooding of the area. Raising the water table in this way will hopefully drown out some of the reed canarygrass and give native sedge and willow plants, both quality early season forage for bears, a foothold to return.
Like most restoration work, it will take some time for the benefits of this project to fully accumulate. As water backs up behind the constructed dams spring after spring, native plant communities will begin to flourish once again, and the entire ecological web will be impacted. Similar to our partnerships with MFP and others in the Swan, cooperation between plants, animals, insects, fungi, and water can shape the landscape in beneficial ways. From increased water filtration and quality to habitat that can sustain a wider array of native species, our investment this fall in Salmon Prairie will ripple forward and beyond this patch of dirt.
Habitat restoration helps the ecosystem regain its health so it is better able to adapt to whatever future seasons bring, especially because what they may bring is increasingly unpredictable. Climate change is causing more extreme fluctuations in precipitation and fire cycles, meaning resilient wetlands that can retain and mitigate water levels through these fluctuations are an important investment. We and our friends at MFP may have had our eyes toward the dirt this day at Salmon Prairie, but our vision was far more expansive.
Securing attractants to keep bears and people safe
When habitat is protected and restored wildlife can continue to thrive in places like the Swan. This means, for those of us lucky enough to live and recreate alongside them, we have to take steps to ensure everyone can coexist safely. Shortly after my workday at Salmon Prairie, I trucked back up to the valley to help our partners at Swan Valley Connection‘s Swan Valley Bear Resources (SVBR) install an electric fence at a property that had experienced some recent bear conflicts. The larches were still yellow, but as we pulled out the wire, fencing pliers and rubber insulators, snowflakes filled in our footprints.
Even after the snow flies, bears can remain active and out of their dens as they continue to forage for much-needed calories. This particular site, where I joined Jackie Pagano with SVBR and another technician, is located on what Jackie describes as a “bear highway”— a narrow movement corridor that sees lots of grizzlies passing through. Unsecured attractants at the site had caused one male grizzly to stick around and get too close for comfort. For the remaining weeks before hibernation, and for future years, the landowner and SVBR wanted to deter conflicts by electrifying the perimeter fence of the property.
Like improving ecosystem integrity at the wetlands, electric fencing is another way to enhance habitat. As quick learners, all it takes is a shock or two and most bears will be effectively discouraged from continuing to seek out human-sourced attractants. This helps them focus on natural foods and avoid situations that could lead to harm for themselves or people. SVBR’s assistance with education, labor, design and cost sharing for the project also helps promote social tolerance for the species by reducing the burden shouldered by landowners.
SVBR’s expertise is critical, as each electric fencing project has to be specified to the constraints of the site and the landowners’ lifestyle. In order to maintain a strong enough current, the fence must be as continuous as possible without coming into any contact with anything that will dilute the charge. At this property just outside the community of Condon, Jackie was able to creatively utilize some of the existing fence posts to minimize material costs and install a removable gate to allow for easy access in and out of the property by vehicle.
It’s easy to celebrate having grizzlies on the landscape, but takes a lot more effort to actually make it happen. Two days of work were needed to secure the entire site with electric fencing and the landowner will have to continuously maintain the fence by mowing and patching any broken wire. Coexisting safely with wildlife is truly an investment, one that takes initiative, partnership and lots of labor. But it’s one that pays off in the long run. Where else can you see grizzly tracks in your driveway?
Investing in a connected conservation landscape
The two prongs of Vital Ground’s mission, habitat protection and conflict prevention, aim at a single future: one where wildlife and people can thrive on shared and open landscapes across the Northern Rockies. Like snowflakes piling up, each individual project adds a few more acres of enhanced conservation lands until it connects the entire landscape. By giving generously this time of year, Vital Ground supporters like you help us to close crucial conservation projects, restore habitat and prevent conflicts. When we invest in the ecosystem, the payoffs return to us in the form of cleaner air, healthy rivers, resilient forests and wetlands, and neighborhoods where we can appreciate the awe-inspiring power of bears in safe ways.
Home to many of Vital Ground’s early conservation projects, the Swan has always been a special place, and the landowners and community groups stewarding it now are ensuring that it will remain so. Through their voluntary efforts to enhance the existing physical and social habitat for wildlife, they are paying forward the natural gifts and abundances of this place for future generations.
But this valley is just one of the areas where Vital Ground was active this year. Like bears, we can cover large swaths of ground in a short time. Through the late summer and fall, our trips into the field brought me and the rest of the Vital Ground team all across the Northern Rockies’ grizzly country and up into Canada. Everywhere, the larches, aspens and cottonwoods were turning gold, a sign of a new chapter starting on the landscape. I am hopeful that just like the vibrant color of these special trees, our work is investing in coming chapters and seasons that are just as bright.
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