Conservation Innovation Grant Helps Landowners Reduce Conflicts between Predators, Working Lands

By Brandon O’Connor, FPAC External Affairs 

After being hunted to near extinction in the early 1900s and listed as endangered species in the 1970s, the grizzly bear and wolf populations have rebounded throughout the American west. 

While their numbers still pale in comparison to their heydays, nearly 2,000 grizzly bears and more than 5,000 wolves are now estimated to reside in Montana, Idaho, and other nearby states. As their populations have increased in recent years, so have their impact on working lands. 

The first confirmed livestock loss to a grizzly bear in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley occurred in 1998. In the nearly 30 years since, the search has been on for effective solutions to protect the livestock raised on western ranches, those working the land and the predators themselves.  

 That work received a major boost in 2020 when the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, along with organizations including the Western Landowners Alliance, partnered with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) through a Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) focused on predator conflict reduction. Heart of the Rockies and their partners were awarded nearly $900,000 over three years for their project “Landowner collaborative strategies for nonlethal predator control,” to work with landowners in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. 

The project’s goals were to study effective non-lethal solutions for reducing conflict between working lands and predators, educate landowners in the area about the available solutions and form new place-based collaborations in the West focused on predator conflict reduction.  

The work focused on helping landowners implement range riding, carcass management and fencing to reduce conflicts between grizzly bears, wolves and livestock. As a direct result of the work completed during the CIG, carcass management and fencing are now eligible for NRCS financial assistance as components of existing conservation practices. NRCS technical assistance is also available to help producers implement range riding on their land.  

“Many producers, they're hesitant to implement any practice where they are not assured of consistent, reliable funding that will help them sustain this over the course of many years,” said Nathan Owens, policy director for Heart of the Rockies Initiative. “Now we have that to be able to offer them and what we're seeing is the interest increase exponentially.” 

Over the course of the CIG, Heart of the Rockies and their partners worked with researchers from Colorado State University, Montana State University, Utah State University and USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center to determine the effectiveness of the chosen practices and incorporate the on-the-ground knowledge of impacted producers.  

They also hosted five webinars to educate producers about the practices and developed guides on how to implement range riding, carcass management and fencing on working lands as well as build place-based collaborations focused on reducing conflicts.  

“It's important that [producers] have the resources to be able to address some of the challenges of sharing space with these species, because it's so important to keep these private lands intact for a whole host of things — food, fiber, habitat for wildlife, and vibrance of rural communities,” said Matt Collins, Working Wild Challenge manager, Western Landowners Alliance. “These resources can help folks manage these conflicts and prevent these conflicts that can really affect their bottom line.” 

Following the success of the CIG, Heart of the Rockies and the Western Landowners Alliance applied for and were awarded additional funding through NRCS’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). More than $22 million was awarded through two separate RCPPs to provide cost-share assistance to landowners in Montana, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona to implement non-lethal predator conflict reduction practices on their land. The goal, Collins said, is to develop additional RCPPs to include Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, California, and Nevada in the near future as they better streamline the process for implementing the conflict reduction practices. 

“It is a massive effort,” Owens said, “and it has taken a lot of partners to help us get to this point, but we're excited to find out what the possibilities are when you have resources that you can deploy to help support wider implementation of these practices.” 

The ongoing partnership between USDA and local organizations to reduce conflicts was the focus of a June 2024 visit to Montana by USDA leadership including USDA’s Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie and NRCS Chief Terry Cosby. During their trip, they toured multiple ranches and spoke to producers who have implemented the identified practices leading to reduced conflicts between their livestock and predators including grizzly bears and wolves. 

For more information about how NRCS can help you implement these and other practices on your land, contact your local service center.