MISSOULA — Montana ranchers and rural communities will now have a better chance to proactively reduce conflicts with grizzly bears, thanks to substantial federal funding.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks nearly $5 million over the next three years from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Bezos Earth Fund to agree.

The money is intended to help landowners adopt non-lethal conflict prevention tools, including carcass removal programs, electric fencing, range courses and bear-resistant waste infrastructure and services.

The grant was awarded in part through the cooperation of landowner-led groups such as the Blackfoot Challenge, nonprofit organizations such as the Heart of the Rockies Initiative and the National Parks Conservation Association, as well as federal and state agencies that work to enable the use of conflict prevention. tools.

The Heart of the Rockies Initiative will work with FWP to help producers access these new resources.

“These resources help meet a growing demand from producers and landowners who are on the front lines of sharing landscapes with growing grizzly bear populations,” said Nathan Owens, policy director for the Heart of the Rockies Initiative.in a press release. “Preventing wildlife conflicts before they occur can help maintain the long-term viability of Montana agricultural producers and facilitate the movement of wildlife from one location to another.” »

Last year, the Heart of the Rockies Initiative was awarded more than $16 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program for non-lethal predator management in Montana, Oregon and Colorado. Of that total, Montana stands to earn between $6 million and $7 million.

In total, the two grants will provide approximately $12 million over the next five years to reduce predator conflicts while keeping wildlife alive.

The Blackfoot Challenge has been a model for implementing non-lethal methods of conflict avoidance on the ground. Reported grizzly bear conflicts have declined by 90 percent since carcass collection and free-range programs began, even though bear populations in the region have increased by 3 percent annually.

But the Blackfoot Challenge has been around since 1993, so it has the organization and ability to raise the funds needed for such programs. This is not the case in most areas. The biggest challenge, therefore, has been finding the money to support ongoing efforts such as carcass collection programs. Even the Blackfoot Challenge needed a conservation innovation grant from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service to launch its carcass collection program.

At the end of 2020, the Heart of the Rockies Initiative I got a grant to study how much money is needed to launch various conflict reduction programs in Western regions. In 2021, the Landowner-Led Conflict Reduction Partnership – a coalition of nine organizations led by landowners and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes – formed to pool resources, but financial resources were limited.

Now, these grants can cover some of the costs while ranchers wait to see if similar funds could be included in the next version of the Farm Bill.

“Ranchers across the West are facing increasingly complex challenges,” Jim Stone, owner-operator of Rolling Stone Ranch and chairman of the Blackfoot Challenge board, said in a statement. “Our ability to collaborate and coordinate with a multitude of partners, including USDA, DOI and FWP, helps landowners put new tools in place on the ground to make agriculture more resilient. I am very grateful for this partnership-based approach and for the investments in our work territories that these conversations can generate.

The first infusion of funding is expected this fall for members of the Landowner-Led Conflict Reduction Partnership, who are already developing conflict prevention programs. Additional funding opportunities will be made available to tribal wildlife agencies, communities and individual producers to share costs to fund new electric fencing, carcass removal, rangelanding and breeding programs. rural sanitation.

In addition to CSKT, the Landowner-Led Conflict Reduction Partnership includes Blackfeet Nation Stockgrowers Association, Centennial Valley Association, Big Hole Watershed Committee, Granite Conservation District, Ruby Valley Conservation District, Swan Valley Connections, the Watershed Restoration Council, the Madison Valley Ranchlands Group, and the Rocky Mountain Front Collaborative.