Conservation similarities between Eastern Europe and the Blackfoot Valley

The Blackfoot Challenge has long hosted international groups to the Blackfoot Valley. Through a cultural exchange grant, a team of seven Blackfoot Challenge staff and a former Natural Resources Conservation Science Powell County District Conservationist were able to travel to Slovenia and Croatia in October to meet with colleagues with no expenses paid by the Challenge.

"We have hosted groups from many parts of the world here in the Blackfoot," Randy Gazda, Blackfoot Challenge vice-chairman, said. "It was really nice to reciprocate and go visit them."

The first time visitors from Slovenia and Croatia traveled to the Blackfoot was in 2022.

The connection with Slovenia began in 2011 when Seth Wilson, Blackfoot Challenge Executive Director, met Slovenian conservationists at a science conference. A mutual interest in bears and developing strategies to live with them served as common ground. Wilson and his family lived in Slovenia for three years, from 2015 to 2019, working with the country's bear project and a Eurasian lynx reintroduction program.

Dominant carnivores in Slovenia and Croatia are brown bears, wolves and lynx. Brown bears are in the same family as grizzlies, but smaller. Bear conflicts over garbage in towns are similar to what Montanans deal with. The Central European countries have a much higher population density of brown bears, about 800 to 1,000 bears in an area about 5% the size of Montana, where there are about 2,000 bears to 1.1 million citizens.

Wildlife management is done by the government, as it is in the United States. A major difference is that Slovenia has about 400 districts, each with a hunting club. The hunting clubs are strictly organized and require citizenship, a firearms license and a hunting examination.

Both wolves and bears were on the verge of extinction when hunters decided to start conservation efforts. The clubs have a conservation ethic and have been pivotal in wolf and Eurasian lynx conservation. By 1990, the hunting clubs throughout Slovenia were working on wolf conservation and in 1993 the government got involved and wolves became and are still protected legally.

The hunting clubs were instrumental in reintroducing Eurasian lynx to Slovenia in 1973 after their numbers dwindled at the beginning of the 20th century due to hunting, persecution, habitat loss and loss of prey species. That reintroduction resulted in isolated populations and inbreeding. The hunting clubs translocated lynx from other countries in a more robust effort to restore a healthy population. Using large enclosures, the lynx were cared for by the hunting clubs and gradually released.

Slovenia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and established the Slovenian Forest Service in 1993, the same year the Blackfoot Challenge started. Throughout the conservation efforts, the government involved the public via education about reintroduction concepts, knowing that having the public on board would help the success of the projects.

Overall Montana participants noticed many similarities in the work being done in these countries with the work done in the Blackfoot Valley. The three locations (Slovenia, Croatia and Montana) share populations of large predators, as well as challenges managing predator coexistence with the human population.

"A lot of the bear issues are the same because people are the same," Gazda said.

Differences included the population density of the European countries and the terrain. Slovenia has 2 million people in a country the size of Massachusetts. The terrain is forested and mountainous.

The hunting style is another difference. The government supplies corn for the hunting clubs to feed Roe and Red deer. Feeders are in remote locations so the animals do not associate people with feeding. Hunting clubs are given a quota of deer and wild boar each year to maintain the proper populations. Traditional hunts are driven hunts, where a crowd of up to 20 people wait for others with dogs to herd the animals in their direction for hunting.

A tour in Croatia was offered to view a population of imperiled Griffin Vultures living on the island of Cres. Historically, the island supported a thriving population of shepherds. The vultures are exclusively carrion eaters and lived on the carcass of sheep that naturally died. However, shepherds struggling economically noticed the upsurge of tourists coming to see the vultures, and began renting out lodging and transitioning away from sheep. This upset the balance and now the vultures are suffering, requiring the government to bring in carcasses to feed them.

The exchange trip included farm visits, meeting conservationists from several countries and touring national forests and educational centers in Slovenia and Croatia. Farm visits showed how farmers used electric fences and guard dogs to protect livestock. Visiting the nature education centers showed the value the government puts on wildlife education through interactive displays and information presented.

"The way we all got involved was through the extinction of the Eurasian lynx," Elaine Caton, bird program and education coordinator with the Blackfoot Challenge, said. "We found out that the hunters thought active conservation was a good reflection on the hunting community. There was so much on the tour about working together and communication."