presented by Mark Ruby

As part of the Collaborated Forest Landscape Restoration Program, the USFS engaged in multi-party forest carnivore inventory and monitoring across the Swan, Clearwater and Blackfoot Valleys between 2013 and 2016. The target species for detection were wolverine, fisher and Canada lynx. The methods utilized non-invasive winter survey methods across the 1.5 million acres and revealed some insightful results regarding the detection methods and the distribution of target species across the landscape. The monitoring and detection methodology has contributed to additional forest carnivore monitoring approaches in western Montana and some exciting new techniques for detection of otherwise elusive forest carnivores.

A Kalispell Native, Mark Ruby has maintained a small home range in western Montana. Mark completed his undergraduate degree in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and received his Master’s Degree from there as well. Mark has worked for the past 12 years as wildlife biologist for the Flathead Forest on the Swan Lake Ranger District. His work has included habitat management on National Forest Lands, collaboration amongst public, agency and partners, plus environmental analysis for multiple resource management. Mark lives in Kalispell with his wife and two sons.

The program will be presented through the online Zoom platform on October 11, 2021, at 7pm Mountain Time (you can hop on at 6:30pm to chat with fellow FAS members). Check your October Pileated Post for the link or email us at info@flatheadaudubon.org requesting the link with instructions to connect.

The program is free and open to the public.

Videos of earlier FAS meeting presentations are available at https://flatheadaudubon.org/videos.