Bear sign…

Conservationists develop baseline for grizzly bear population

Emily Schock is grinning ear to ear, just like her partner, Melanie Tropkus, as the pair bounce their way up an old logging road in a four-wheel drive truck. Rising above the east shore of Flathead Lake, the higher they go, the cooler the breeze and the thick canopy of trees shades them from the 90-plus degree temperature on the valley floor.

"It's awesome," Schock said from the backseat as the truck plowed through another bone-jarring pothole.

"You couldn't ask for a better job," Tropkus chimed in from behind the wheel.

Schock, 19, and Tropkus, 24, are glad to be working outside for the summer, particularly on a project that means so much to them. The pair represents one of four teams in the Mission and lower Flathead Valleys gathering DNA material that will be used to analyze the grizzly bear population in the greater Northwest Montana area.

Their near-euphoria is also founded in their professional aspirations. Originally from Illinois, Tropkus is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin where she majored in Biology with an emphasis in Zoology. Schock, a 2003 graduate of Mission High School, just finished her freshman year at University of Montana-Western at Dillon, where she is majoring in Wildlife Biology.

Both applied for summer jobs with the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project, joining a large number of individuals interested in conservation that are enjoying a summer of on-the-ground field work.

The project is a joint effort of a variety of federal, state and tribal groups to estimate the population of grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem in northwest Montana. The NCDE stretches from Eureka to Browning along the Canadian border and south through the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Mission Mountain range toward Seeley Lake and Lincoln.

Because the NCDE encompasses eight million aces - the third largest of six established grizzly bear recovery zones in the lower 48 states - it potentially harbors the greatest number of grizzly bears, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Through a hair collection effort at strategically placed sites throughout the NCDE, the project will produce DNA data that can assist grizzly recovery efforts by providing insight into population size, trend, survival, and the corridors that link separate populations.

A similar, but smaller project took place at Glacier National Park from 1998 to 2002. USGS biologist Katherine C. Kendall of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in West Glacier led the Glacier effort and now leads the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project.

"The goal of this project is to come up with a population estimate, with two numbers - a minimum count of grizzlies, and a population estimate for how many bears there are out there, plus or minus 20 percent," Melanie Parker, director of Northwest Connections and leader for the Mission-Swan subunit, said. "The other goal is to identify the distribution of grizzly bears across the NCDE. For example, the Glacier estimate showed there were more bears away from populated areas … and we're looking to see if that holds true outside of the park."

The project, primarily funded by grants authorized by Congress, relies on using "rub" trees and "snag stations" with baited lures to attract the bears to rub or cross low-slung barbed-wire fencing. The barbs don't hurt the bears but they do snag hair samples, which are meticulously collected by two-person crews on a regular basis.

Under this project, collection of hair samples at snag stations began in June and will continue through August. Then a contracted laboratory will analyze each of the thousands of samples over the next several years. By 2006, the project hopes to finalize publication of the results of the DNA testing, using statistical models to estimate the number of grizzlies in the NCDE.

"This is our second field season. Last year we had many fewer crews setting up the rub-tree project," Parker explained. It took a lot of time to identify and plot out all the trees, telephone poles and even sign posts that bears rub on. But this year is the actual collection portion of the project, with a number of two-person crews working in nine separate subunits on four different "hitches."

Schock describes a hitch as nine days of collection, followed by five days off. So, each collection site sits for exactly 14 days, then hair is collected, the site is torn down and set back up in a separate location within that cell.

Schock and Tropkus are referred to as a "front country" crew - they drive close to many of their sites and can hike to most of them within 30 minutes or so. There are backcountry crews that spend most of their hitches hiking backcountry to get to the collection sites.

Front country crews in the Mission Valley, include team members David Keast of St. Ignatius, and Travis Espinoza and Chris Bergman of Arlee. The crews check sites set up in wilderness areas, as well as some land owned by participating private landowners.

Schock and Tropkus spend their days doing the grunt work of the project. Armed with collection envelopes, a pair of hemostats, maps, data logs, a few tools, an 80-foot coil of barbed-wire, and a can of pepper spray, crews collect hair from each barb and log signs of bear activity.

The wire is wrapped around four trees or posts and set precisely at 50 centimeters off the ground, low enough to touch the bear if it crawls under it and high enough to drag across a bear's belly if it steps over the wire. The crew removes hair from each barb, then sterilizes each barb and the hemostats with a lighter to remove any trace of genetic material. Each envelope of hair is logged with specific location on the fence.

The center of the "set" has a pile of wood debris that was coated with bait, a mixture of cow blood and fish guts that has proven keenly effective in drawing the attention of bears. Hair is also collected from the debris pile, since the bears will rub and roll against the debris.

A rag soaked in the concoction, which Tropkus affectionately refers to as "the smelly," is also hoisted into up a nearby tree to help carry the scent even farther.

"It's been brewing for a while and gets to smelling really good," Schock said with a smile.

After all of the hair is collected, the entire site is dismantled and the wire, warning signs and scent rag are packed up for erection at the next site. The days are sometimes long, but nobody's complaining. The project is both enjoyable and meaningful, making their summer employment a job that will end entirely too soon.

"On your second day off, you're looking to get back out there," Schock said. And the long days don't bother her a bit. "If you are going to bust your butt working, you oughta do something you enjoy."

The two are aware of the real dangers that exist - hiking into a location that is baited with attractant significantly raises the opportunity to encounter a bear. They make a bit of noise as they approach, including an ongoing good-natured needling of each other.

"We try to make a lot of noise and be alert," Tropkus explained.

"And we don't have to worry about (making noise) with Tropkus," Schock quickly added with a smile.

But the pepper spray is carried for a good reason and they both were reminded of that basic safety issue after another crew reported being stalked by a black bear as they returned to their truck. It's serious business but rewarding.

"Even if you have to deal with the smelly bait, it's nice to help answer the question of how many grizzlies are out here," Schock said.

Parker hopes that project results will be posted on the web site as they are produced, but that will largely be determined by how quickly the lab can work its way through the massive amount of samples. Eventually, however, a large number of interested organizations and the public in general will be able to access the analysis.

"They will post all kinds of statistics … (including) how many male bears, how many females, where they were, all that stuff," Parker said. "And the data will be used by all kinds of bear managers … obviously by the Fish and Wildlife Service and I would imagine the tribes would use it, too."

For more information, go to the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center's project web site at nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/NCDEbeardna.htm