Waterton Biosphere Reserve, Part 2: Carnivores and Communities
Waterton Biosphere Reserve, Part 2:
Carnivores and Communities
WORDS BY BRITTNEY WYNNYK
FEATURE
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of wolves, cougars and bears? Is it an intrinsic uneasiness? A memory of a time spent in the woods, clutching the spray that the kid at MEC insisted you buy? Perhaps you have seen them on the side of the road while driving by, or maybe in a docile environment like the zoo or a refuge. Regardless of your experience, we all share a healthy respect and a certain reverence for North America’s large carnivores. One person who understands this well is Jeff Bectell, Carnivores and Communities Program Coordinator for Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association.
Jeff’s roots run deep in Cardston, a small town not far from Waterton Lakes National Park. His family has ranched in this location since 1917, and like most of his ranching and farming neighbours, Jeff respects the land and its large carnivores. That is why he has set out to find sustainable solutions that protect carnivores, rural communities and livestock.
Jeff is a natural leader for a program like Carnivores and Communities. Founded in 2009, it is a community-based and landowner-driven program that serves to achieve coexistence between ranchers, their livestock, and wild, predatory animals like bears, wolves and cougars. It’s a unique, multifaceted approach that encompasses both proactive and responsive measures to wildlife and livestock encounters.
The program began when concerned community members joined together with provincial biologists, fish and wildlife officers to address the increasing rates of conflicts with large carnivores. Jeff and his fellow community members had facilitated meetings in the past and had a reputation of effective collaboration and getting things done – likely the reason that frustrated agricultural producers approached them in pursuit of solutions to their large carnivore conflicts.
They only agreed to taking on the role if it was productive in finding resolutions in the ongoing conflicts between ranchers and carnivores. When it comes to introducing the program to ranchers, Jeff’s approach is very considerate and humble. He is the first to admit that, “the program is not perfect, but it is necessary and it is helping”.
“This is their natural habitat…” Jeff states, regarding the carnivores, “…it’s about finding ways to co-exist.” He is referring to a pattern taking place in southwestern Alberta: as large carnivore populations expand, more of these animals are occupying productive habitat on both public and private lands, leading to increasing conflict with all kinds of agricultural activities. This conflict can be damaging and dangerous for farmers and ranchers and their families, as well as the bears, wolves and cougars. Their presence is either damaging to livestock operations, dangerous for themselves, or in worst cases, both.
A little insight into these carnivores: specifically, wolves, bears (both grizzlies and black), and cougars. Grizzly bears have a unique relationship with Alberta’s wildlife management systems. They have been increasingly protected in the province since 2006, and were listed as a threatened species in 2010. It is now estimated that between 865 and 973 grizzly bears live in Alberta. In southwestern Alberta, including Waterton Lakes National Park, there are approximately 172 bears that use the area each year, with 68 of those bears considered full-time residents. The irony in this quest for “sustainable solutions for living and working in harmony with nature”, as Jeff so eloquently puts it, is that the bears are in this space because the ranchers have been such great stewards of the land; maintaining and caring for their habitat.
Mike, local rancher and friend of Jeff.
Learning about the Carnivores and Communities Project also led us to Mike: a local rancher and active member of the project. It is important to note before going further; Mike only agreed to being profiled by Good Planet Project if it was connected to or endorsed by the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association - a clear indication of his support of the project. Thankfully we had our proverbial backstage pass, and it afforded us the behind the scene story we desired.
September of last year brought about an unusual, albeit unsurprising, early snowfall in southern Alberta. A few days later, Mike left his ranch for work before the sunrise, and his day-end return was met with bloodstained snow. A bear had slaughtered ten of Mike’s sheep.
The threat of large carnivores, specifically wolves and bears, in southwestern Alberta is not limited to livestock attacks but also includes the safety of people and pets, the consuming or contaminating of grain and feed, and damage to bins and buildings. In many cases, a rancher’s livelihood is under attack when a bear or wolf wanders onto their property, and if the risk is high enough the animal has to be removed.
This is where the Carnivores and Communities Program comes into play. It is comprised of both preventative and responsive measures, including: access to electric fences, deadstock removal, and other bear proofing tools. To start, electric fences serve as an “attractant management” mechanism. They restrict, or highly deter, carnivore access to designated areas in an effort to protect livestock, feed and grain, and other attractants. Electric fences have proven effective deterrents, as the animals quickly learn that they cannot pass through after a few stern shocks.
Mike showing how the electric fence is powered.
In a similar vein, bear resistant garbage and feed storage bins are critical in training the animals to go elsewhere for food. Bears are intelligent in that they will go back to where they have been successful, and they will move on after a couple of futile efforts with a proper grain storage bin.
Jeff holding the door that a bear had destroyed to gain access to the feed storage bins. Behind is the new, improved door.
In the program, “deadstock” refers to dead livestock like cows and sheep that, despite best husbandry practices, are inevitably part of raising livestock. Deadstock boxes, then, are exactly what you would imagine: a large metal container on a rancher’s property for the disposal of a dead animal, aka, a carnivore attractant. With the spring comes calving season and often an increase in deaths. Compounding the unfortunate situation of losing livestock for ranchers is a complex set of rules and regulations around proper deadstock disposal that we will not even try to pretend to understand, but will encourage you to decipher for yourself, here.
The Deadstock Removal Program, a subproject of the Carnivores and Communities Program, aims to help ranchers by offering to completely remove the deadstock from the property. Upon the discovery of a dead animal, a rancher can place the carcass in a secure 14-gauge steel-sheeting container, to be removed at no charge to the rancher. The program has been wildly successful, and now services over 550,000 hectares of ranchland around Waterton while removing an estimated 4,900 carcasses since its inception.
Jeff estimates that there are around 100 ranches currently participating in the deadstock program, with just over 100 individual projects completed on approximately 50 different farms and ranches.
A paw print and hole dug under a deadstock bin shows a bears unsuccessful attempt to get access.
Finally, Carnivores and Communities has been working through the Waterton Biosphere Reserve to recommend enhancements to the Alberta Wildlife Predator Compensation Program to make it more effective toward rancher-carnivore coexistence. This government program aims to ease the economic costs of unfortunate carnivore encounters, paying producers (ranchers) for livestock proven killed by a wild predator. Compensation an important step in acknowledging the true costs of living alongside wildlife, one that often falls disproportionately on the shoulders of rural communities and our major food producers. Ranchers play an essential role in our collective food system and in the Alberta economy as a whole, and in considering how volatile the livelihood can often be, assistance programs like this are the least we can do as a province.
There is a common theme that emerges as we learn from those involved with the Waterton Biosphere Reserve like Mike, Jeff and Kim (if you haven’t yet met Kim, you should here). It is a theme of balance and coexistence, of quiet reverence and fearless innovation, one that calls on community and takes pride in the shared place called home. Our time with Jeff was educational beyond what I have ever learned in a textbook, but what has stuck with me the most is this: when you have lived on both sides of the fence, and you acknowledge that there’s no good guy or bad guy, and that the solution is not perfect or absolute, you speak with a calmness and authority that resonates with more than just the hippies or the hunters. You lead people in the pursuit of the possible - a reciprocal coexistence between humans and our large, furry, carnivorous counterparts - and they follow.
For more on the Waterton Biosphere Reserve visit their website here.
For more on the Carnivores And Communities project visit their website here.
