Residential Development Presents Challenges to Wildlife Managers

By Peter Metcalf, 1-18-09

Underneath the portrait of a whimsical looking young moose, big bold letters on the real estate flier proclaimed: “This could be your new neighbor!”

Drawn by the allure of Montana’s open spaces and abundant wildlife, tens of thousands of people have moved to Big Sky country in recent years, many of them building homes right in a moose’s kitchen.  That rash of residential development has created complex challenges for the state personnel charged with the management of Montana’s wildlife, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks management biologist Craig Jourdonnais told a small audience gathered in Missoula Saturday for the Sierra Club’s conference “The Heat is on: Managing our resources in the face of climate change.”

“My job is to try and make wildlife fit on a landscape where people live, work and try to make a living,” said Jourdonnais, who recently transferred to the Bitterroot Valley after years in the valleys near Bozeman. 

Residential development impacts wildlife in a number of critical ways.  Development reduces and fragments existing habitat as well as blocks important corridors animals need to move between seasonal habitats.  Fences impede wildlife movement and kill animals that become entangled in their wires while increased traffic volume turns highways into virtual fences.

But it is not just the actual footprint of the infrastructure that places a burden on wildlife, but also the associated human recreation, like walking trails, the pet cats that kill songbirds or the dogs that chase ungulates.

“Those kinds of activities certainly expand the impact of development well beyond the footprint of the house,” Jourdonnais said.

In response to these growing pains and state law requiring wildlife to be considered in new development, FWP attempts to work closely with developers and private landowners to find “the best deal for wildlife,” Jourdonnais said. 

FWP uses data gained from aerial surveys and tracking data from GPS collars to generate precise maps of how wildlife use and move across the landscape.  These maps allow the agency to identify which ranges and corridors require the most strenuous protection and what potential conflicts will result from development. 

Jourdonnais acknowledged that FWP’s support for certain development projects, such as the development of a portion of a ranch or parcel of open space in exchange for conservation easements on the remainder, has disappointed certain constituents and some people within the agency.  But, Jourdonnais argued, that option is preferable than the sale to a new owner who maybe less willing to negotiate with wildlife in mind.

“There has to be some economic incentive for (landowners) to still play the game,” Jourdonnais said.  “I’m not defending it, but it is the reality we face.”

Of course some wildlife, including many deer and elk herds, have found new development particularly inviting and now reside in yards and pastures near town year round instead of heading back up to summer range “where there are a lot more teeth,” Jourdonnais said

Many other elk herds hole up on private ranches that restrict public hunter access by the first week of hunting season, providing effective sanctuary that, when measured by the department’s elk population targets, contribute to the overabundance of elk in some areas like the Madison Valley. 

All these animals in close proximity to people, while making a great marketing attraction, lead to constant conflict between wildlife and people and even between neighbors, especially between people who try to make a living off the land and those who simply reside on it. 

“A lot of these conflicts are eating up much more of our time than they did even twenty years ago,” Jourdonnais said.