Snowmobile tracks found in Badger-Two Medicine

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist Mike Madel is worried that illegal snowmobiling in the Badger-Two Medicine region could displace denning grizzly bears.

Madel presented his findings and aerial photographs of the illegal snowmobiling to bear managers at the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem subcommittee meeting last week in Hungry Horse.

The Lewis and Clark National Forest banned most motorized use in the 130,000-acre Badger-Two Medicine area south of Glacier National Park in 2009.

But snowmobilers are using groomed trails in the Flathead National Forest’s Skyland Road area to access the closed areas. It’s not difficult for modern snowmachines to cross the divide there.

Madel said the worst trespass is in the Pool Creek area and the headwaters of the North Fork of Badger Creek.

He said he hasn’t seen any grizzly bear displacement yet, but based on snowmobile tracks he’s seen, the illegal snowmobilers are coming very close to known denning areas. And it’s not just a few sleds.

“We’re seeing hundreds of snowmobile tracks,” he said.

Madel’s been monitoring the snowmobile activity while flying for bear activity each spring over the past couple of years.

The Flathead Forest allows snowmobiling in the Skyland Road area until May 14 — long after denning bears have emerged.

That’s the problem, charged Keith Hammer, chairman of the Swan View Coalition. He said the Forest Service is allowing trails to be groomed well into the spring.

Snowmobile usage on the Flathead Forest came as a compromise when Amendment 24 was adopted several years ago.

“This amendment runs against the grain of how it used to be,” Hammer said.

Rocky Mountain District Ranger Mike Munoz said his staff patrolled the Badger-Two Medicine area more intensely when the motorized ban first went into effect, but he admitted enforcement is not as intense now.

“We just haven’t had the ability to stay up there,” he said.

Madel said motorized use near dens could cause the bears to abandon their dens. He noted the area is prime grizzly bear habitat and home to several denning females. He said the grizzly bear density in the area is twice what it is at the southern end of the Rocky Mountain Front.