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Bear found during fire season to be released
HELENA – Hidden from public eye, Montana’s most famous bear cub slumbers away the days of February in a straw-filled box at the state’s wildlife shelter in Helena. The burns on the little bruin’s paws have healed. A diet of Puppy Chow helped the cub nearly triple in weight.
Next week, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists plan to make good on a promise made in August when the 20-pound orphaned cub was captured by a game warden in a charred Bitterroot Valley forest. The bear will be returned to the wild, but not without a final sendoff. Reporters from around the state and at least one news crew from California will rent snowmobiles and accompany biologists to a man-made bear den along the rugged Eastern Front of the Rockies near Choteau.

There, the groggy cub will be placed in the den with another orphaned cub from the Bitterroot Valley, with the hope the two will slowly awake later in Spring and resume a wild life. Despite temptations to transform the cub into an icon – one that could have been particularly useful for fundraising efforts for a new wildlife shelter – biologists were determined to keep the bear wild, said Marilyn Evans, executive associate for the Helena-based Mikal Kellner Foundation for Animals. “FWP was very sensitive to the public’s need to know about the bear cub and about the cub’s handling,” she said. “They were very concerned that this bear cub would have a good chance of going back into the wild, as tempting as it might have been for it to be a poster child.” The rescue was first announced in a U.S. Forest Service press release. Photos and stories of the bandaged cub were printed and televised around the world.

“Certainly the cub captured the imagination of a lot of people,” said Ron Aasheim, FWP’s conservation education administrator. Although there was “meaningful discussion” over what to do with the cub, Aasheim said FWP quickly realized the best course of action was succinctly stated by Sgt. Joe Jaquith, the game warden who captured the badly burned bear. “This is going to be a wild bear if I have anything to do with it,” Jaquith said at the time.

The bear was treated by a veterinarian and given a home in the state’s small wildlife shelter in Helena. Although the public is normally welcomed to view wildlife at the shelter, the bear was kept out of sight. At least one radio station held a contest to name the cub – Crispy was a favorite – but the cub is still officially referred to as “the cub.”

“We think wildlife needs to be wild,” Aasheim said. “Wild things typically aren’t named. ... It’s demeaning enough for those little buggers to be down at the shelter living in the conditions they live in.” The fear among many biologists and wildlife advocates was the cub would be transformed into another Smokey Bear. The original Smokey died in 1976 after 26 years in a zoo. His image lives on as a trademarked logo with 160 licensed products and a consulting company that advertises on its Web site: “Just think what a partner he could be to your business!”

But that doesn’t mean the Bitterroot cub had no public relations role – just a different and much more subtle role. Its picture is still used by FWP and the Kellner Foundation to help raise money for a new wildlife shelter, for example. The new shelter will open in Helena in Spring 2002. About $1.1 million has already been raised, nearly half from the Kellner Foundation. The bear helped raise awareness, but it was in no way exploited, said Evans, of the Kellner Foundation.
“We’ve got to remember that Smokey Bear was in a different era and he helped with a lot of important causes,” she said. “This bear this time had a different mission. I think he symbolizes the future of wildlife rehabilitation.”

The new shelter will be a halfway house for injured and orphaned wildlife. There will be bigger cages and less chance for the animals to associate with humans, but the shelter will also have a greater emphasis on education, said Kurt Cunningham an FWP conservation education specialist.
“We’ve got to keep it hands-off to give the animals a better chance of getting rehabilitated into the wild,” he said. FWP currently cares for an average of eight orphaned cubs a year. The released cubs have about a 50 percent success rate in the wild, which is close to natural survival rates for cubs estimated at 67 percent, Cunningham said. Success isn’t as good for deer, elk and lions, which imprint easily on humans. Even if success rates are low, FWP will continue trying to help the animals, Cunningham said. Unless it involves threatened species, wildlife rehabilitation has more to do with education and public relations than principles of wildlife management.

A study from 1999 showed that 99 percent of the public wants professional care for orphaned bears, such as the burned cub from the Bitterroot Valley. Convincing the public that such a cub should fend for itself would be like telling a child it’s better to not help a baby robin fallen from a nest. “If you look at it, the amount of time and energy that goes into one of these animals, it doesn’t make sense. We’re definitely not affecting the bear population,” Cunningham said. “Sometimes we have no other option than to get these critters and take care of them humanely. It just isn’t palatable to people to not care for them. It’s expected of us.”

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REED POINT – Winds caused firefighters to scramble Sunday afternoon as a wildfire quickly tripled in size to an estimated 1,500 acres.Throughout the afternoon, crews tried to strengthen the fireline but were wary of getting too close to the fire as gusts topping 35 mph blew embers into dry crowns of ponderosa and jack pines, which exploded into 50-foot towers of flame.

“It’s awful damn dry and these trees are burning like it’s July. Most fires don’t get this big this early,” said Spencer Peterson, chief of the Reed Point Volunteer Fire Company. “It’s too early in the year for this hot of a fire.”After being surprised Sunday afternoon, no one on the fireline was making any predictions as to when the blaze would be contained. But hopes were buoyed as the sun went down. As fast as it had started, the wind had died and the temperatures also plummeted.

“It will probably be totally controlled (Monday),” Peterson said.The fire is burning on hilly ranchland about 10 miles north of Reed Point. It started Saturday afternoon at about 1 p.m. when wind caused a controlled burn to spread into surrounding grass and timber. Rancher Sven Svenson was burning a pile of branches and tree tops left behind from a winter logging operation on his land, said Tom Kelly, director of Stillwater County Disaster and Emergency Services.

By mid-afternoon, 65 firefighters from nine fire departments in Sweet Grass and Stillwater counties were fighting the fire. Crews had to haul water from stock tanks and ponds more than 5 miles away. By early evening, the fire reportedly burned 500 acres. The only house in the area belongs to Svenson, but the fire stayed at least 1/2-mile away. A wide dirt road and pasture land also separated his residence from the fire.The fire never stopped burning Saturday night. A passing cold front kept winds steady throughout the evening. Firefighters remained at the scene all night, patrolling its perimeter and watching for flareups. Additional firefighters arrived Sunday morning to strengthen the line and begin mopping up hot spots.

Heavy equipment, including two road graders and at least two bulldozers, scraped a line around the fire. However, the line was not wide enough to contain the flames when the wind returned early Sunday afternoon.The fire jumped the northern fireline at about 2 p.m. Luckily, firefighters were at the scene and snuffed the flames before they gained a foothold outside of the boundary, Peterson said.

“We were waiting for it,” he said. But the fire burned out of control within the fireline. There were some tense moments as winds pushed the fire through thick timber, nearly trapping a group of firefighters, Peterson said. After the winds died down Sunday evening, the fire continued through the forest as a knee-high line of flames burning pine needles and low brush. Peterson was optimistic the air would remain cold and calm through the night, allowing mop up work to begin Monday morning.

Peterson said with the dry conditions, he will ask county commissioners to ban any more controlled burns this spring. Crews fought another, smaller wildfire last weekend in the area.“The landowners like to burn up the slash, but this is the second weekend we’ve been out here fighting fire’s and I’d just as soon be fishing,” he said. “This is about as early as I’ve ever seen a fire get this hot. I’m really not looking forward to this summer.”

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The 1,500-acre Reed Point fire is a sneak preview of blockbuster summer fires that will soon appear in forests throughout the state, officials predicted. After another dry winter, fuel in Montana’s forests is as dry as kiln-dried lumber – in some cases even drier. This is prompting a spooky refrain from the mouth of scientists, loggers and ranchers alike: “This is worse than ’88.” After reviewing the latest scientific reports Monday afternoon, a wildfire expert in Billings summed up his thoughts. “I’m concerned,” said Bruce Thoricht, a fire weather forecaster for the National Weather Service.

Forest moisture levels are one of the main predictors scientists such as Thoricht use to gauge if conditions are prime for wildfire. These levels are taken by measuring the amount of water trapped in both living and dead vegetation. Most foresters begin to worry about fire when dead fuel moisture levels dip below 20 percent. The heaviest dead fuel, that with a diameter of 3 to 6 inches, now has a moisture content between 10 and 15 percent in much of the eastern two-thirds of the state, Thoricht said. Smaller sticks and branches have a moisture content between 3 and 5 percent.

“Kiln-dried wood comes out at 12 percent,” he said. “Last year some of these larger fuels were 6 percent. Parts of Montana are now 5 percent or less. We’re going to be right back where we were.”
Smaller sticks, branches and grasses lose and absorb moisture quickly. After a heavy rainstorm, dried sticks on the forest floor are sodden within minutes. But large logs need days and weeks of rainy and damp conditions to replenish moisture.

Ironically, near-normal levels of spring moisture in the region are adding to Thoricht’s concern. This rain is fueling growth in small fuels, such as grasses and shrubs, but the precipitation has not been anywhere near enough to increase the moisture in the thickest fuels, those that give staying power to wildfires.

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The wildfire 10 miles north of Reed Point was mostly contained Monday afternoon.

“We’re in the process of finishing the fireline all the way around it,” said Reed Point Volunteer Fire Company Chief Spencer Peterson.

Flareups throughout the day were limited to the area inside the fire line, he said. The fire burned about 1,500 acres, he said. Precise damage maps were being developed Monday.

No structures have been damaged by the blaze, which was started Saturday afternoon after wind gusts carried away embers from a controlled burn.

It’s difficult to start a large log on fire with a single match. Surround the log with crumpled newspaper and the fire readily ignites. In the heat of summer, the same grasses and small fuels being grown by the spring rain will act as the crumpled newspaper to the bonfire, Thoricht said.

“All this moisture is doing is allowing the fine fuels to grow. There will be a lot of fuels when it gets hotter,” Thoricht said. “We’ve been very concerned about that.”

Barring weeks of monsoon rain, fire bans are inevitable, officials said. The only question is when and to what extent.

The issue was discussed Monday morning during a meeting of Stillwater County officials. County Fire Warden George Bokma said the fire north of Reed Point emphasizes the need to act quickly. “This is the worst we’ve ever seen, and it’s getting worse,” Bokma said. “We all recognize the problems but nobody has a solution yet.”

Burning bans have been proposed, but officials have yet to agree on how extensive they should be. On the low end is the banning of ditch burning and the burning of slash piles. Next comes a ban on campfires. Then comes the ban on vehicle travel. The most stringent ban, which was enacted in Montana last summer, is to ban people from most public lands.

“It really opens a can of worms. When you put a fire ban on you also stop people from logging, and you stop recreationalists and on and on and on,” Bokma said. “How’s the rancher going to take salt to his cattle? How’s the surveyor going to survey this land? You can’t shut these people down and ruin their livelihood.”

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High and dry: Moisture level sinks to record low

May usually is Billings’ wettest month, with 2.57 inches of precipitation on average. The 0.34 inch equates to 13 percent of the normal moisture for the month, Canepa said. “It would take a lot to erase, or make up, that deficit and come out ahead,” Canepa said. May 2000 had 1.64 inches of precipitation and May 1999 had 1.76 inches, according to NWS records. Looking back a few years, 3.85 inches fell in 1996 and 3.51 inches in 1995.

The shocking numbers have Billings resident Albert Ortmann hoping his well doesn’t dry up. Ortmann dug a 21-foot well at his home on Yellowstone Avenue more than a decade ago. The well water has kept Ortmann’s tomato and strawberry plants, roses and other flowers flourishing and his city water bill reasonable, he said.“But I’d rather have the rain,” Ortmann said.

So would plants, according to Amy Grandpre, horticulture assistant with the Yellowstone County Extension Service. Plants prefer the deep water that a good steady rain will provide and Grandpre challenged people to try to emulate that kind of soaking. Most people don’t water enough, she said. “Put out a coffee can and see what you are throwing out there,” Grandpre said. “A lot of people are only putting out about a quarter-inch. That’s fumes in this hot weather.”

Lawn, flowers and vegetables need a full inch of water, Grandpre said. With lawn, the water has to get down four to six inches to feed the roots and hold in the ground, she said. Trees and shrubs need about two inches of water, not as often, Grandpre said, but so that it runs deep enough to get below the lawn. Grandpre also reminded people that trees older than three or four years need to be watered from the trunk out to their canopies to reach the feeder roots.

Soil conditions will affect the need for watering. Soil can vary from sand to gravel to clay all within one lot, Grandpre said. To help determine when to water, she suggests using a moisture meter, like the ones that work for house plants. “Otherwise it’s just guesswork,” Grandpre said. “We can’t see under the surface.”

‘Emergency measures’

The early peak of the Yellowstone River and the dwindling snowpack in the Beartooths are easily seen, however. People who fear being left high and dry this summer are making plans now. The Yellowstone County Conservation District is seeing a surge in people who are considering “emergency measures” to get water to where it’s needed, said Laverne Ivie, a district employee.

“People are getting concerned and starting to develop plans to get water to structures, agriculture and industry,” Ivie said. The elected Board of Supervisors of the district issues one of about five permits required to work in or around perennially flowing streams. It’s early in the year, but people are starting to apply for Natural Streambed and Land Preservation Act permits, also known as the “three-ten permit,” she said.

“We’re seeing quite an increase in applications and from people I wouldn’t have guessed we’d get these types of applications from,” Ivie said. “They are worried.” The district usually receives permits from people who want to deal with erosion problems caused by high water, Ivie said. This year they are looking for ways to divert water to get it to the areas it’s needed. Ivie said that could include diversion dams or other temporary concrete structures that move water to intakes without long-term effects on the health of the river.

“Because of the extreme drought conditions, there may be things placed in the river that are not aesthetically pretty, but people can be assured they are only temporary and based on sound science,” Ivie said.

Prospects

The Billings area normally has received about 7 inches of precipitation by the end of May, according to the National Weather Service, which determines “normal” by averaging 30 years of weather data. This year Billings has recorded only 3.46 inches, or 3.55 inches less than normal. Perched in the shade on his porch, Ortmann compared this year’s dry May to the fires of 1988, when it was said only an act of God would bring relief. “Pray for rain,” Ortmann said. “I think that’s probably the best answer.”

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Rare phenomenon comes to Montana

Near Billings, the only major disruptions caused by the weather included picnics, strolls and soccer games. The rain was a welcome visitor for many, especially those who make their living in the parched Musselshell River Valley. “It was just beautiful,” said Jim Ballard, a rancher near Lavina. “I don’t think this is going to make a hay crop by any means, but just seeing the rain makes everybody feel better.”

The rain fell fast and hard enough that minor flooding was reported on parts of Interstate 94 about 50 miles east of Billings, said a Montana Highway Patrol dispatcher. Traffic slowed, but there were no reports of any damage, she said. Ballard said nearly three-quarters of an inch filled his rain gauge. Although he has already sold about half of his herd of 250 cows, Ballard said the rain and the recent decision to allow grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands will make it easier to preserve the rest of his stock.

Much of his hay is already dead or dormant, he said. Sunday’s rain will help green up the native grasses and give a burst of energy to the forage on CRP land, he said. “We’re pretty happy to get whatever we can,” Ballard said. “If it stays cool and cloudy for a couple of days it will help even more.”

Forecasters are predicting Ballard’s wish to come true. “I expect this to last,” said Bob Benjamin, with the National Weather Service in Helena. “It’s the type of weather pattern we want. It’s a very good, wetting rain.”

Today should be cool with highs in the low 60s and 40 percent chance of rain, according to the NWS. Winds will be between 5 and 15 mph. Tuesday will also be mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain, the NWS predicted. Nordahl said about a half-inch of rain fell on her family’s ranch near Molt Sunday afternoon. The rain has come too late to help the grass when it needed it most – about 80 percent of the native grass is already tasseled out and finished growing, she said. Her husband has already sold off about a dozen cow-calf pairs.

“We need quite a few days of this kind of rain,” Nordahl said. “But at least this was better than the usual hot sun and wind.”