The Hub Conservation Area - Montanans 4 Safe Wildlife Passage

Front south along the Continental Divide. TheKeep Cool Hills, west of Landers Fork, and theridge between Alice Creek and Landers Forkfunnels wildlife into this linkage area that aremoving south from the Rocky Mountain Front/Northern Continental Divide ecosystem. RogersPass,Anaconda Hills, Mitchell Mountain and theBlackfoot Canyon/Kershaw/Marcun Mountainarea are specific major wildlife movement areasand important ungulate winter ranges withinthe linkage. Ward Creek, to the east side ofKleinschmidt Flats, is an important movementarea for pronghorn, grizzly bear, elk, andmoose. The North Fork of the Blackfoot Riveris a “wildlife highway” for all species found inthis linkage. In the southwest part, a linkagezone consists of intermountain canyons betweenHelmville and the Douglas basin, which isimportant for wolves, mule deer, and elk.Grizzly can be found throughout this linkage,but the most activity is north of Highway 200in the Blackfoot Valley. Bears move southfrom the Scapegoat, through the east part ofthis linkage, and into the Robert E. Lee thensouth to the Boulder Mountains. Year around,bears move between Seeley Lake and RogersPass in drainages like Monture Creek, ArrastraCreek, Landers Fork, and Poorman’s Creek. Thefoothills within the entire valley are importantto grizzlies that move towards the East Garnetsand Robert E. Lee Mountains. The mouth ofLincoln Canyon, between Highways 141 and 200,and the town of Lincoln, is a key movementarea for grizzly. Red Mountain, west of Landers’Fork, has an army cutworm moth site that isvery important for grizzly in the late summerand fall. Grizzly bear denning habitat existsthroughout this linkage zone.Wolverine: This area could be considered corehabitat for wolverines, and is important formovement. Trapping records show persistentpresence of lynx in this linkage area.The highest quality habitat for wolverine, lynxand mountain lions can be found in Dunham,Monture, and Copper Creeks. The greatsnowshoe hare habitat at Marken Mountain isalso high quality lynx habitat.The Marcun Mountain to Lincoln area is greatwinter range for elk, mule deer, whitetail deer,and moose. Consequently, this same area isalso great for wolves, which follow the ungulateprey. Monture Creek to Ovando Mountain,Brown’s Lake, Douglas Creek, Manley Mountain,Arrastra Creek, Raster Creek, and Landers Forkall provide high quality elk winter range. Theentire Paws Up Ranch alone provides winterrange for between 1/4th-1/2 of all elk in thislinkage. The area between Blacktail Mountainand the north end of the Helmville Valley is atransitional movement area for elk betweensummer and winter range. Scapegoat WildernessArea, McCabe Mountain and Mulkey Gulch areimportant for elk summer range.Wolves move south from the Continental Dividein the eastern part of the linkage.Moose are scattered throughout this linkage inall riparian areas.Conservation ThreatsDevelopment potential on industrial timberlands in this linkage could fragment habitat.The Lincoln area is starting to develop; thistown is essentially within a wildlife corridor,and increased development will likely lead tomore conflicts between wildlife and humans.In particular, the south side of the Lincoln areashould be addressed, as it lies outside of theofficial grizzly bear recovery zone.Public land access is an issue that concernswildlife managers responsible for maintainingreasonable game population levels. This areahas had a lot of logging over the last fifty years,which pushed the elk onto private land, wherethey have stayed. Currently, because of theprivate lands and easements that do not providepublic access, there are over 1700 elk just in thewestern end this linkage, which is double theestimated number that can live there withoutdamaging habitat. Consequently, there is highsocial intolerance of carnivores and elk in thislinkage.Highway 200 and Highway 83 are threats interms of both habitat fragmentation and directmortality caused by animal-vehicle collisions.In the last four to five years, three grizzly bearswere killed by animal-vehicle collisions within77