Elk herd squeezed by development

Last December as the temperatures dipped well below zero, Luci Yeats looked out her window at the forms in the field outside of her bedroom window.

Elk.

More than 100 of them.

The Columbia Falls herd is one of four that roam the Flathead Valley, but increasingly their habitat is becoming fragmented, and their future unknown.

Biologists would like to know more about the valleys’ elk herds. In addition to the Cloumbia Falls herd, there’s one in the West Valley, another that roams from Rebecca Farm to Ashley Lake and another that roams from Mud Lake near Creston to the south into the Swan Valley.

The Columbia Falls herd generally roams north to south, weaving its way through farms and “ranchettes” along the way.

The squeeze on the herd is already noticeable and will likely only get worse. With proposed subdivisions planned east of the river either approved or in the works, the amount of room to roam is surely to diminish in the next few years.

River developments aside, areas that were once open farms are now seeing more subdivision between Middle and Columbia Falls Stage roads.

One subdivision in the works along Columbia Falls Stage Road even has a picture of the elk herd as part of its advertisement.

Some have suggested the elk will domesticate, like they do in national parks like Yellowstone.

But parks don’t have domestic dogs running freely and they’re not fenced and cross-fenced.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Franz Ingelfinger said the agency would like to get some radio collars on the herds so they can better understand their movements and migration patterns.

“It’s important to get some collars out at some point,” he said in a recent interview.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are not a new threat to elk — it was identified decades ago in elk management plans drafted in the 1990s, he noted.

“As we carve up our valley … it’s a real threat,” he said.