Living with bears comes full circle in the Swan Valley

SWAN VALLEY – There is a new ranger who will be making the rounds in the Swan Valley this spring and summer visiting campgrounds and dispersed sites helping to educate the public about living responsibly with bears. While the Swan Valley Bear Ranger Kathy Koors is new to the position this summer, she has been the heartbeat behind the position's existence since it started more than 13 years ago. The reinstatement of the position has also gone full circle bringing the first two bear rangers in the Swan Valley back in partnership to support the position.

In the mid 2000s, there were growing concerns about human-caused grizzly mortality in the Swan Valley. Due to a poor berry crop and an abundance of uncontained garbage and stock feed, eight grizzlies were killed in one year due to euthanization for food conditioning or being killed on Highway 83.

"I was just horrified. I was like this can't happen," said Koors who has always been interested in bear behavior and people's behavior around bears since working with visitors in the late 1970s at Glacier National Park. "I didn't want the Swan Valley to be known as a sink hole for grizzly bears."

According to community surveys, Koors said 99% of Swan Valley residents value wildlife.

"So if that is such a strong attraction for people living here and they put value on it then we have to do our part in keeping the wildlife healthy," said Koors.

In 2005, Koors wrote the first plan for Swan Valley Bear Resources while working for Swan Ecosystem Center (SEC). SVBR was a loose knit partnership that included SEC, Northwest Connections (NwC), Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks and other Condon community members. The collaborative effort focused on providing information on living with bears, aiding managers with responding to conflicts, monitoring bear activity in the valley and worked with landowners to eliminate, reduce and mitigate attractants.

For Koors, one of the big issues for bears was attractants. She started with a $500 anonymous donation and secured a several thousand-dollar emergency grant from the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund. SEC partnered with the Living With Wildlife Foundation (LWWF) and other groups to purchase bear resistance dumpsters for all the businesses in the Swan Valley from Holland Lake Lodge north to the Mission Mountain Mercantile.

SEC ordered a semi-truck load of bear resistant dumpsters for around $1,500 each. Businesses were asked for a minimum donation of $100. They also purchased bear resistant containers for residential use.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, Montana Department of Natural Resources, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Plum Creek and SEC funded a bear ranger position through the collaborative. The ranger's job was to visit campgrounds and discuss with the public about living with bears, appropriate food storage and picking up their trash.

"Sometimes the verbal word makes people a little more aware [than just reading the signs]," said Koors. "When you have a person explaining to you what the chain reaction might be to leave a cooler on your picnic table while you go fishing for the day, people often change their behavior."

The first bear rangers included Patti Sowka and Mark Ruby.

SVBR continued to expand. Ruby started working with residents educating them on proper use of bear resistant containers and how to avoid conflicts with bears.

The collaborative became a clearinghouse for information about attractants and how to properly secure them. They started promoting and helping install electric fences and hosted outreach events including a Spring Bear Wake Up Social and Swan Valley Bear Fair in August.

"Living with bears was not always at the front of people's mind," said Ruby. "The idea was to put together stuff that helped them out."

Ruby is now the Swan Lake Ranger District wildlife biologist. Through various transitions and mergers the bear ranger position was lost and duties absorbed by the partnering agencies in SVBR. Today, SVBR, managed by Luke Lamar under the umbrella of Swan Valley Connections (the new organization formed from the merger of SEC and NwC), continues to be successful.

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Last summer Koors had a pet-sitting job through her personal pet care business. She went through the Owl Creek Packer Camp every other day. For three weeks she had an encounter with the same black bear, one she affectionately named Baby Holland.

Koors explained that the people camping thought it was great to see the bear. She tried to explain that the more the bear becomes comfortable in the camp, the less likely it would live through the season. She educated campers about the bear being there, properly storing their food and picking up their trash.

While most of the people were receptive, one man challenged her asking, "Who are you anyway?"

"I said well no one," said Koors explaining how taken back she was by the resistance. "I'm just a resident that is really concerned about this bear's safety, the people using the packers camp and the people even at [Holland Lake] campground because this is not normal bear behavior. I'm just trying to be a good citizen."

This was the same time that a female grizzly, named Windfall by Condon residents, had become a regular visitor in Condon.

"I just got to thinking we really need boots on the ground again," said Koors. "Somewhere people are not getting the message that it's not really cute to see a bear in the same place day after day after day. That means there is an attractant or something keeping that bear there."

Former SEC Executive Director Anne Dahl encouraged Koors to find a way to work with SVBR to fund the bear ranger position again.

"It was clear there was a need for more of this work," wrote Dahl in an email. "She's smart and a good fundraiser so she made it happen."

Koors reached out to Ruby at the Swan Lake Ranger District to discuss reestablishing the bear ranger position with the intent to engage the public in the campgrounds and work with them on sanitation. In her proposal she said she would visit all of the dispersed sites and campgrounds except Holland Lake from Lindbergh Lake north to Van Lake once a week.

Koors asked if Ruby would be willing to partner with the idea and provide a Forest Service vehicle to add creditability to the position. Ruby appreciated the initiative and is in the process of pursuing an agreement that would provide a Forest Service vehicle for Koors.

"I think it is an important piece of the puzzle," said Ruby. "We have folks in campgrounds that are maybe from out of area that don't necessarily know about camping or storing foods in the back country. If a bear gets into your food, you might be passing that problem on to the next people that camp there or even at a different camp where that bear learns to look for coolers that has food inside of them. I'm glad that Kathy has been eager to help build our capacity to help address this at the campgrounds."

After approaching a few local non-profits, LWWF hired her as an employee to do Bear Ranger work in the campgrounds in partnership with the Forest Service.

Sowka, the first bear ranger, is now the executive director of the LWWF. She said LWWF is about identifying issues that threaten the conservation progress for grizzly bears and other wildlife in the Swan Valley.

"That one simple act [of carelessly leaving garbage behind] can cause a bear or other animal with no prior conflict history to start down a path which escalates and eventually ends in the permanent removal of that animal and its offspring," wrote Sowka in an email. "Having someone talk to residents and more importantly visitors who might not understand that tragic cycle is sometimes all that is needed."

While Koors has been doing this for years and knows where the hotspots are, she credits "a really dedicated, group of volunteers" for their support and encouragement. Koors and her core group of volunteers organized a bear solstice event last December in honor of Windfall. They raised $10,000.

"The older I get, the more I realize everything is connected," said Koors. "I would hope that people would lose their fear of the bear managers. It's okay to talk about them. You are not causing a bear's death. You are causing a bear's death by not talking about them."

As the Swan Valley Bear Ranger Koors is now a partner with SVBR through her partnership with the US Forest Service. She is looking for volunteers to increase the reach and exposure in the campgrounds. For anyone interested in volunteering, call Koors at 754-2593.

While an anonymous donor funded the position part-time through the summer, Koors is looking for funding to continue the position. While she will be writing grants, those willing to make a donation to the position are encouraged to make a tax-deductible donation to the Living With Wildlife Foundation, PO Box 1152, Condon, MT 59826. For more information about LWWF visit https://lwwf.org/