News and Updates from the Challenge

After ten years at the helm of the Blackfoot Challenge, Executive Director Gary Burnett takes position with Heart of the Rockies Initiative

Dear partners and friends,

It has been my honor to serve for the past ten years as the executive director of the Blackfoot Challenge. I have learned so much from the landowners, board members, staff and partners with whom it has been my privilege to work alongside. It is with tremendous gratitude that I start a new chapter guided by lessons learned in the Blackfoot. I have accepted the executive director position with the Heart of the Rockies Initiative beginning the end of November. Wanda and I will remain residents of Potomac and continue to enjoy the benefits of private and public partnerships at work in the Blackfoot Watershed.

Over the past decade, I have witnessed the success of the community-based approach. I am proud to have been some small part of the partnerships that are working to facilitate protection of working lands, reduce conflicts between grizzly bears and livestock and share access to water for irrigation and fish. In my new capacity, I look forward to sharing this approach. By supporting local needs and building partnerships with our neighbors, together we will realize landscape-scale solutions while honoring our communities.

 The Blackfoot is in good hands thanks to strong partnerships, support from hundreds of donors, diligent governance by the Board of Directors and dedicated work of staff. The best is yet to come for the Blackfoot Watershed. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to serve.

In Gratitude and Partnership,

Gary Burnett

You can keep in touch with Gary on Facebook or LinkedIn, or shoot him an email at gary@heart-of-rockies.org.

Drought Committee convenes annual meeting on Dec. 8

The Blackfoot Challenge established the Drought Response Committee in 2000 and since then, the Blackfoot watershed has experienced drought at least 12 times. This year, above average snowpack and a cold, wet spring still didn’t preclude drought conditions later in the summer. Recurring drought and uncertainty about future water supply have inspired a continued commitment to voluntary participation in a coordinated approach to drought response in the Blackfoot.

The Drought Committee is composed of local landowners, irrigators, anglers, conservation organizations and state and federal agencies who work together every year to figure out how to minimize adverse impacts of drought on people and fish. 

On Dec. 8, the Blackfoot Drought Committee will meet to review the 2017 water year, drought conditions and drought response in the Blackfoot watershed. Topics will include: critical flow and temperature trigger dates, impacts on native fisheries, and how this year’s water supply compared to previous years. This summer, flexibility built into the Blackfoot Drought Response Plan allowed the committee to modify the drought response process in the face of extreme wildfire.

Based on lessons learned each summer, the committee relies on community feedback to update the way drought response is implemented in future years. With recurrent drought, the committee is also thinking about how to alleviate drought through longer-term stewardship strategies that build resilience, such as improving soil health and restoring stream channels. With the drought response requirements of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Water Compact, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks staff will also discuss the upcoming change in the Milltown Water Right priority date and the implications for Blackfoot irrigators. 

If you are interested in learning more about Drought Response in the Blackfoot, would like to design an individual drought plan for your property, or would like to attend the upcoming Drought Committee meeting, contact our Water Steward Jennifer Schoonen at 406-360-6445 or jennifer@blackfootchallenge.org.

Ninth consecutive Range Rider season comes to an end

Cattle are now home from their grazing leases and calves have been shipped, marking the end of the Range Rider season in the Blackfoot watershed. Through the Range Rider Program, the Challenge works in coordination with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to monitor bear and wolf activity during the summer months, paying particular attention to their proximity to grazing livestock. This year, our lead Range Rider and full-time Wildlife Technician Eric Graham was accompanied by three part-time Range Riders - Sigrid Olson, Jordan Mannix and Kelsey Bailey – who together monitored over 40,000 acres throughout the watershed. The Range Riders are in constant communication with ranchers throughout the area and also produce a report once every two months summarizing what they’re seeing out on the ground. These are a few excerpts from the last Wolf and Bear Activity Report of the season:

• There are still some grizzly bears out and about in the Blackfoot and Clearwater drainages. Several reports of tracks and sightings came in from hunters during the last week of hunting season, and one hunter had a deer taken over by a female grizzly with three young. Some of the track reports indicate the bears are headed to the high country toward the den while other reports indicate the bears are taking advantage of hunters’ deer and elk gut piles. Expect to see some grizzlies out until mid-December and then out of their dens in late March and early April of 2018.

• The forest fires made it difficult to manage garbage, especially during the evacuation period. There were several reports from the Seeley Lake area that black bears had gotten into garbage, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks trapped and relocated several bears in response. Bears were also getting into garbage in the Lincoln, Potomac and Bonner areas as well. Please remember to secure or remove your attractants.

• A total of 13 wolf packs are located in the Blackfoot watershed, ranging in size from two adults to 12 adults and pups. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has collared individuals in six of those packs and monitors their activity via radio telemetry.

If you are interested in receiving our Wolf and Bear Activity Reports in your inbox, email us at outreach@blackfootchallenge.org.

Join the Challenge Dec. 13 for some holiday cheer

And finally, we hope you will take us up on an invitation to join us Wednesday, Dec. 13 for some holiday cheer. We’ll be celebrating another year of great people being great partners and working together to find homegrown solutions for the Blackfoot. We will provide brief updates on outcomes from 2017 and our plans for the year ahead. And there will plenty of good food and drink to go around.

The fun gets started at 6 p.m. at the Main Lodge at Double Arrow Resort. We hope to see you there!