The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist has also heard the complaints of landowners whose fences were ripped apart by a passing herd of elk or deer.
“A fence can be an incredible barrier for wildlife,” Jourdonnais said. “They can also be a large expense for landowners ... there are ways to address both of those concerns.”
The 44-page illustrated guide offers dozens of solutions to help landowners create easier passage for wildlife across their lands, reduce the potential for injury to wildlife and protect their property from wildlife damage. The guide was written by independent biologist Christine Paige of Ravenworks Ecology in Stevensville
“We heard from people who were battling with elk every year,” Weigand said. “They were tearing down their fences on an annual basis. They were looking for a fence that would still hold wildlife and not get torn to pieces.”
There wasn’t a good reference book available to landowners looking for fencing alternatives, Weigand said. The new FWP guide will offer folks a lot of different proven fencing designs.
“These ideas have been around for a long time,” Jourdonnais said. “It’s not like we reinvented the wheel.”
Jourdonnais wants to spread the word in the Bitterroot Valley about simple modifications to fences that can make all the difference for wildlife while saving landowners a lot of labor and money spent on repairs.
He’s seen it work time after time in the Madison Valley where large herds of elk and antelope roam.
In the winter of 1995, a graduate student spent a cold winter following wolves and elk along the windswept timber of the upper Madison Valley in an effort to quantify just how many wapiti were being felled by the large predators.
The results of the study were surprising.
“He found about 50 elk killed by wolves that winter,” said Jourdonnais said. “An equal number of elk had died after being caught up in fences.”
Jourdonnais worked with a number of ranchers in the valley interested in looking for new ways to keep their livestock controlled in the most wildlife friendly way possible. The ideal wildlife fence is low enough for adult animals to jump, high enough for younger animals to crawl under and designed to keep critters from getting entangled in the wire.
Ennis-area landowner Jeff Laszlo has seen the difference a well-designed fence can make both for wildlife and his pocketbook.
Over the last five years, Laszlo has been working to restore a large riparian area and spring creek on his property between Ennis and Cameron. The project required that livestock be fenced off the riparian area in a place inhabited by plenty of wildlife.
Laszlo constructed a four-wire fence. The top wire was smooth and the bottom wire high enough for antelope and young deer and elk to crawl under. He also spaced out the stays between the posts enough so the fence would have some give when an animal jumped up against it.
He liked the results so much that he’s been working to replace the estimated 50 miles of fencing with the same design.
“We have a large elk herd that moves back and forth through here and there was a lot of maintenance on the traditionally designed fences we had,” he said. “We’ve ended up saving money in the long run. We’re not constantly out there fixing it.”
The death of an animal caught in a fence can be excruciatingly slow.
Elk often get their front legs wrapped up in the top and second wire when they don’t quite jump high enough, Jourdonnais said. Deer tend to get their back hooves trapped.
The animal usually survives the initial entrapment only to starve or be killed by passing predators.
“When their feet get twisted up in a fence, it becomes a death trap,” Jourdonnais said.
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