USDA Wildlife Services’ nonlethal initiative

Hi folks! It’s a pleasure to meet you through the pages. My name is Chrissy Lambert, and I work for USDA Wildlife Services as a conflict prevention specialist. 

I live in Kalispell and travel all over northwestern Montana to assist livestock producers with protecting their livestock from large carnivores like bears and wolves. From the borders of Idaho and Canada, west of the Rocky Mountain Front, and north of St. Ignatius, I spend my weeks traveling around my work area building electric fences, deploying turbo fladry, giving talks at local 4H or community meetings, and meeting with folks to discuss their livestock protection needs. In a typical year, I’ll install about 30 electric fences ranging from the size of a chicken coop to 5 acres. I’ll also deploy turbo fladry at 5 to 7 sites that range from a quarter mile to 1.5 miles long.

Being well connected with other local organizations in this field has proved paramount in my efforts to get all these electric fences and turbo fladry projects installed in order to assist livestock producers while keeping bears and wolves out of trouble. More specifically, organizations like Swan Valley Connections have aided our ability to support more livestock producers in the Swan River Watershed. As an agency, our mission is to provide federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist. We apply an integrated wildlife damage management approach to alleviate and reduce wildlife-livestock conflicts.

In 2018, WS-Montana, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Defenders of Wildlife collaborated to help fund and support the utilization of more nonlethal tools to protect livestock from depredation. As nonlethal methods gained recognition, local demand also increased. Since 2020, WS has received Congressionally appropriated Nonlethal Initiative (NLI) funds to implement nonlethal conflict reduction programs in 13 states, including Montana. NLI staff in Montana utilize electric fencing, turbo fladry, and range riding.

Your ears may have perked up when you read “turbo fladry” earlier. Maybe you’re like me and had never heard of it before. Turbo fladry is a temporary conflict mitigation tool used to deter wolves from areas where young and vulnerable livestock like lambs and calves are present. It consists of a single strand of polywire with red flags sewn on at regular intervals and acts as a novel stimulus that effectively wards off wolves. It is also electrified to negatively reinforce any wolves that contact the fence. We typically deploy turbo fladry during the winter to spring months, as this is when most young livestock are born in my area. Turbo fladry is placed for up to 90 days. This ensures that wolves do not become habituated to its presence, lessening the fladry’s effectiveness. Turbo fladry is free of cost to participating livestock producers.

In addition to turbo fladry, we also install electric fencing. There are a few misconceptions about electric fencing, as not all fences are the same. The electric fence you may have grown up using to secure your livestock is likely not the same fencing we use for keeping predators out. The voltage for a typical livestock electric fence enclosure may be 3-4,000 volts, while a properly built electric fence for predator deterrence should be at least 8,000 volts. The energizer, which powers the fence, must be strong enough to meet the voltage requirement. Your energizer should have an output rating of at least 1 joule, as well as ample grounding. Here in Montana, our soil can be dry and rocky, which means it doesn’t conduct very well when we rely on ground rods alone. In these instances, we incorporate additional ground wires in the electric fence to create what’s called an alternating hot and ground fence. In some cases, we can also use the existing fence as an additional grounding source.

Electric fencing can get pretty technical and sometimes overwhelming for folks who have never built one before. I’m always excited to share that WS can help you with this! If you’re interested, I can meet with you to go over electric fence planning and design. We also assist livestock producers by covering up to 50% of the total cost of their electric fence and fully funding electric fence projects for youth producers like 4Hers or FFA members.

While I’m focused on installing electric fencing and turbo fladry year-round, WS range riders are hired seasonally to ride horseback into grazing allotments to create human presence on the landscape, identify predator signs, and locate dead or sick livestock. All of these findings are then reported back to livestock producers grazing on that allotment.

For more information on our program in Montana and nationally, check out our story map: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife-services/about/nonlethal/storymap. If you’re interested in receiving assistance for an electric fence or turbo fladry, please contact me at 406-360-1476 or [email protected]. For more questions, please contact our state office at 406-657-6464.