Chickens are turning out to be as troublesome as bird feeders and garbage so far this year for state grizzly bear management specialist Tim Manley.

“This spring we’ve been busy with bears killing chickens in the Flathead Valley,” Manley told a panel of wildlife and land managers in Hungry Horse Thursday.

Manley estimated that about 100 chickens have been killed by bears this year, and those are only the ones he’s aware of. Over the last three weeks, Manley has helped deploy seven electric fences, most of them to protect chicken coops that have been popping up in areas that bears use, most often unbeknownst to the people who live in those areas.

The foothills below the Swan Mountain Range have become a hot spot for bear activity, particularly over the last couple of years.

“At one point this spring, I know we had 14 grizzly bears in the valley, from Columbia Falls to Ferndale,” Manley said.

So far, Manley has trapped and relocated three grizzly bears because of conflicts with humans, and often, their chickens.

One that had been visiting the porches of homes was caught in the Pinnacle area in the Flathead’s Middle Fork drainage on April 27.

A sub-adult female believed to be responsible for chicken killings was trapped off LaBrant Road north of Bigfork last week.

And just a couple days ago, another sub-adult female that had killed chickens at a Many Lakes property was trapped.

Manley said those probably aren’t the only culprits; lone bears or possibly family groups may be responsible for other chicken killings that have happened.

Manley has spent years on “education and outreach” in trying to get rural residents to secure garbage, bird feeders and other potential bear attractants, and now he is doing a lot of coaching on electric fences, which are pretty much the best way to protect chickens.

“It’s constant education, working with people,” he said.

Manley noted that Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation organization, has a cost-share program that offers up to $500 to people who purchase and put up electric fencing to protect livestock from depredation by bears.

The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem subcommittee also had a discussion about the complexity of an upcoming process for delisting grizzly bears in the NCDE.

Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the public should be aware that a recently released conservation strategy for managing bears after delisting is only one component in the process.

There are five national forests that also must go through forest plan amendments or revisions to account for how bear habitat will be managed after delisting, he said.

“We want to make sure we are in sync with the Forest Service and we’re not too far ahead of them” in the delisting process, Servheen said.

Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow said each forest is on a different timeline with their forest plans. The Flathead National Forest, for instance, will be releasing draft forest plan revision documents in the fall of 2014.

“Each forest is in a different place, so there’s a complexity to it,” she said.

Panel members said the pieces that need to be in place before a delisting can occur need to be communicated to the public.

“The question is out there, ‘Why aren’t we delisting now? Why is the Fish and Wildlife Service so slow?’” said Gary Bertellotti, the panel’s chairman and the Region Four supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “They think the conservation strategy is the delisting document, and it isn’t.”