September 1st - September 15th Range Rider Update
Range Riders continue to ride regularly. A few producers have already weaned and shipped herds out of the Centennial Valley, with more to come later this month. Range Riders will continue to ride, with some time spent helping gather and ship, as requested by producers. Spending time with producers this time of year has been a huge asset to our program, because it helps build relationships and understand their programs, which in turn makes the Range Riders more effective with communication and riding goals the rest of the season.
Fortunately, herds have been doing well this season and continue to do so. There have been a few losses due to natural causes in the last several weeks, but still no confirmed livestock-predator conflict. In comparison with the last several years, this is a really good sign. In previous years, most of the documented depredations occurred in August through mid-September. Although there is still plenty of time to see conflict, the Team is feeling good about how the season has shaped up so far.
Archery season for big game species (deer, elk, pronghorn) is currently open, along with upland bird season, both bringing increased traffic to the Valley. The next opener to be aware of is waterfowl on October 1st, which will bring even more traffic to areas like Lower Lake. 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!
Predator activity really slowed down since the last report, despite similar efforts across game cameras and range riding. Although we can’t say for sure, this shift may be related to wild game carcasses left by archery hunters drawing the grizzly bears and wolves elsewhere.
Grizzly bear activity really slowed down since the last report, with only two observations since the beginning of September. One of the observations was of tracks by a community member and the other a game camera photo of one bear in the north central part of the valley where there is pretty regular activity. No black bears were observed or reported to the Team.
The Team documented three wolf observations, all of which were on a game camera in the same location, likely of the same individual.
Archery season for most big game species is open, bringing increased traffic to the Valley. If you are lucky enough to shoot a moose, deer, or elk this season, please consider submitting lymph node samples to FWP for Chronic Wasting Disease testing (CWD). CWD is a serious disease that is not prevalent in the Centennial Valley presently, but has become more common in surrounding areas. For more information, visit FWP’s website (https://fwp.mt.gov/cwd).
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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