Field Reports: Grazing could give elk a boost

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department is launching a six-year grazing program northeast of Helena, using cattle to improve forage for elk.

About 400 cattle will be put on some 450 acres of the Beartooth Wildlife Management Area this summer to control smooth brome, a grass largely unpalatable to elk. The main benefit will be from “hoof action” breaking up old brome that inhibits growth of plants that elk like, said Cory Loecker, department wildlife biologist.

The brome was planted in the 1950s, years before the department’s 1970 purchase of the Beartooth Wildlife Management Area, which covers 32,318 acres along the Big Belt Mountains and is open for hunting and other recreation.

At the area’s Polloch Meadows, cattle from Sieben Livestock Co. will graze for five weeks this summer and five weeks in 2007. They will not be put on the land in 2008, but will return for five weeks in 2009 and again in 2010.

The Beartooth Wildlife Management Area is home to 500 elk, 100 bighorn sheep, 300 mule deer, 100 white-tailed deer and 50 antelope, plus black bear, game birds and other wildlife. Managers want the area’s winter range to support an additional 1,000 elk, 200 mule deer and 100 white-tailed deer.

Associated Press

CONSERVATION

Creek project wins award

Agencies cooperating to restore fish and wildlife habitat along Asotin Creek in southeastern Washington have received a Conservation Partnership Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Although it’s a small tributary to the Snake River, the Asotin Creek steelhead are uniquely prolific, thanks largely to years of work by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Asotin Conservation District and area landowners, Ag officials said.

Landowners have worked through the Asotin Conservation District and the NRCS with tillage management systems that protect the stream’s water quality, said Gus Hughbanks, NRCS state conservationist. Landowners also have used fencing to keep cattle off the stream, thus protecting critical fish-spawning areas.

Most populations of Snake River basin anadromous salmonids – steelhead, spring/summer chinook salmon and bull trout – are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Fish researchers have found the Asotin Creek summer steelhead population is robust and the stream’s condition is a model for other watersheds.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Idaho ready to sell nonresident tags

Idaho has approved 12,815 nonresident elk tags for sale statewide, with 2,400 reserved for outfitters during the 2007 seasons. The Fish and Game Commission also authorized 12,800 whitetail and mule deer tags, with 1,900 set aside for outfitters. They approved 1,200 southeast deer tags, with 85 for outfitters.

Nonresident tags go on sale Dec. 1.

Rich Landers