August 16th - August 31st Range Rider Update
The Range Riders have been regularly getting through participant herds, albeit less frequently now that Taylor is gone. Fortunately, herds have been doing well this season and continue to do so. Although plenty of grizzly bear and wolf activity has been documented, there has been no sign or reports of predator-livestock conflict.
The Team documented a lot of recent grizzly bear activity on game cameras in the north-central part of the Valley, between Eureka Basin and Landon Ridge areas. There were a few carcasses across the region, and many of the observations were in the general vicinity of carcasses, although game cameras did not pick up photos of bears on carcasses specifically.
The Centennial Valley continues to get weekly rain events, which has kept the dust down and the grass green this late into the season. There has been a lot of regrowth already in areas previously grazed, and with some warm weather in the forecast, likely to be more. Many of the willows and aspens are starting to change color and lose their leaves – a sure sign that fall is here.
With fall comes hunting traffic to the Valley, which has become noticeable in the last week with the start of general archery season for deer and elk on September 2nd. Just as a friendly reminder, if you are a hunter, please be respectful of the Centennial Valley and its community; do not trespass, practice good hunting ethics, clean up after yourself (i.e. garbage and toilet paper), and drive respectfully. Thank you! Also, if you shoot a moose, deer, or elk this season please consider submitting lymph node samples to FWP for CWD testing. CWD is a serious disease that is not prevalent in the Centennial Valley presently but has become more common in surrounding areas. More information can be found at: https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/chronic-wasting-disease.
The Team had 22 grizzly bear observations since the last report. Most of these were on game cameras (17/22), but there were observations of tracks (4/22) and one sighting. Though the majority of the observations were in the north-central areas of the valley, between Eureka Basin and Landon Ridge, other observations were documented throughout the rest of the Valley. Interestingly, the sighting we had was from a community member who said it looked like the grizzly bear was getting chased by a golden eagle!
There were three black bear observations in the last two weeks, two of which were from community members and the third was a game camera event. Observations were spread across the Valley.
There were five wolf observations, including four game camera events and one scat. Most of the observations were of one or two different wolves in the north central part of the Valley.
Archery season for most big game species (i.e. deer, elk, pronghorn) is open, bringing increased traffic to the Valley. The Team hasn’t documented as many elk on our game cameras recently, but plenty of deer and pronghorn. Elk are likely in higher elevation areas where cameras aren’t placed. Elk bugling hasn’t been heard yet, but any time now they should be going off, signaling the rut (mating season).
The Team and the cameras cannot capture the entire Valley each day, so community reports are extremely valuable to understand how wildlife use the Valley. Thank you to those that submitted their observations this half of the month! If you have any wildlife reports to share (big or small!) please contact Erika Nunlist, Wildlife Program Coordinator, at wildlife@centennialvalleyassociation.org. We look forward to hearing from you!
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