BEAR-y Nice! A Thrilling Adventure in the Rocky Mountain Trench with Julia Poetschke

Hi! My name is Julia Poetschke. (It’s pronounced PET-skee!) I work at the Nature Conservancy of Canada, where I’m a land stewardship manager. That means I take care of forests and meadows, kind of like a vet takes care of animals. I make sure that the Rocky Mountain Trench is a healthy space for animals to live!

Over the last few months, our team has been removing baby trees, shrubs, and low branches from Kootenay River Ranch. We call this work “thinning the forest.” We do this to make space for native grasses and other meadow plants to grow. Lots of animals, including grizzly bears, badgers, and bighorn sheep, rely on these grasses and open forest ecosystems for habitat and grazing. Baby trees and shrubs prevent grass from growing, which means there’s less food for grazing animals. They also make it harder for animals to move through the area to access other important habitat.

In the past, mild wildfires would thin out the forest for us. These are different from the big wildfires that you hear about on the news; they are natural and normal, and they can actually help prevent bigger wildfires! But, because more people have been moving to the Kootenay area, firefighters have been putting out all wildfires, no matter how small. That means our team at NCC is stepping in to do the work that wildfires used to do. It’s tough, and it will take a long time, but we’re making good progress.

We work on specific areas called treatment units. We work on one treatment unit at a time, starting with the areas that are the most overgrown. We remove all the baby trees, shrubs, and low branches. Then we put them into piles so that they can be safely burned throughout the winter, or left to decompose and provide nutrients to the soil.

This is what the forest looks like before we thin it. It’s very dense! That means the trees are close together, with lots of baby trees and shrubs in between them.

We save bigger trees and branches to build critter hotels. Critter hotels are piles of wood that provide habitat for birds and small animals. Some of the animals that enjoy critter hotels are squirrels, rabbits, salamanders, frogs, lizards, and snakes. They use the hotels for shelter, like dens and nests. Insects love critter hotels, too, which means that these hotels are a great food source for animals that like to eat insects! Larger critters like badgers and grizzly bears can also snack on the small animals in these hotels–that’s how the food chain works!

We also keep an eye out for standing dead trees, but not because we want to cut them down–we actually want to leave them standing! Dead trees are another type of amazing natural hotel that we call wildlife trees.

Wildlife trees provide food, safe nesting sites, hunting perches, and food for many different species. They are full of insects like millipedes, mites, earwigs, beetles, spiders, ants, and earthworms. These insects slowly eat away at the wood, which makes it softer. The softer the wood, the easier it is for birds and small mammals to make nesting sites.

Wildlife trees also attract woodpeckers and other animals, like grizzly bears and badgers, who love a good insect meal. These wildlife trees can remain standing for many years, but even when they fall over, they continue to provide essential food and habitat.

It’s been a busy few months, but we’re not done yet. We still have some thinning work left to do! Once we’re done thinning, we’re hoping to have a controlled, low-intensity burn to help restore the soil and support the growth of the important grasses and meadow plants. 

Now it’s time to answer your questions!

How do bighorn sheep hunt for food?

Are badgers, grizzly bears, and bighorn sheep social animals?

Do grizzly bears eat strawberries?

Do American badgers hibernate?

If I encounter a grizzly bear, what do I do?