OVANDO - Staff members from Blackfoot Challenge shared their experiences and expertise with certain programs during a virtual event called Stories from the Field Wednesday, April 14.
The first speaker was Cindy Super, the forestry and prescribed fire coordinator. She spoke about the importance of restoring fire as an ecological process as she described her team’s process of organizing a prescribed fire on private property in the Blackfoot last spring.
“We will learn together as we bring fire back to its rightful place on our landscape,” she said.
Super said they have several burns planned for this spring. They are expecting to burn anywhere from 40 to 100 acres on private property.
Elaine Caton, education and swan restoration coordinator, talked about a specific swan they had released in fall 2014. As part of her team’s restoration project they have released over 200 trumpeter swans in the Blackfoot since 2005.
This specific swan was released on Jones Lake near Ovando at around four months old. In 2017 she partnered with a male swan that she stayed with up to 2019. Last summer she was found on a different lake five miles away with a potential new mate. Caton said swans generally mate for life unless something happens to one of the partners.
They then put a GPS collar on her and tracked her movements from mid-July to late fall last year. She frequently moved throughout the Ovando valley before going as far as Ennis Lake and northeast Idaho. This is one of two swans they are currently tracking with GPS devices.
Vegetation Coordinator Karen Laitala described how they were using a drone to assist with their “war on weeds.” The new technology is able to assist with tasks such as dragging a heavy hose up a steep slope or treating a weed patch that is growing just out of reach. It has a carrying capacity of five gallons.
The drone’s flight patterns are pre-programmed and it is able to self-adjust for elevation changes. It also has an adjustable buffer that allows it to avoid obstacles like trees, buildings and fences.
Laitala also said that they are using education, specific insects, selective herbicides and annual weed pulls to inhibit the growth and reproduction of invasive species.
Water Steward Jennifer Schoonen then talked about their beaver populations and how the Blackfoot Challenge can use their methods to improve watershed resilience.
According to her, beaver related restoration has become popular over the past decade. She acknowledges that beavers can cause challenges when they dam around human infrastructure so they are starting to experiment with reducing human conflict with beavers while still retaining the benefits of their presence. One of the challenges they pose is taking down large trees that are important to the landowner.
If the conflict can be mitigated, the beavers can remain where they are. If they must be moved then they will be transported into areas where they can benefit the habitat. If an area in need of restoration does not have the potential for a beaver colony to establish itself, then the Blackfoot Challenge can use “low-tech restoration techniques” to build simulated beaver dams.
According to Schoonen, within a few weeks of using this technique they saw sustained streams as well as improved vegetation and wildlife existence. Beavers have the ability to create resilience on the landscape in the aftermath of natural disasters like drought, flooding and wildfires. She cited an example where a beaver complex survived while the stream channel below the ponds completely burned.
Land Steward Brad Weltzien talked about an upcoming grazing management and riparian enhancement project intended to support the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area’s (Game Range) wildlife population. He said they need a network of well-managed land to support viable wildlife.
Weltzien plans to focus on a grazing management system by developing a strategic grazing rotation as well as infrastructure like riparian fencing and multiple stock water sources.
Finally Executive Director Seth Wilson talked about using electric fencing as a way to deter bears from entering unwanted areas. As examples he presented a solar powered electric fence protecting a beehive as well as garbage at the Ovando Transfer site. These fences have also been used by dozens of ranchers throughout the valley to protect calves as they are being born.
Wilson also discussed an electrified steel mat placed on a driveway between fences that can be driven and walked over by humans but will shock an animal.
For more information about the Blackfoot Challenge and other projects visit https://blackfootchallenge.org/
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