Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) is partnering up with the U.S. Forest Service to conduct a study that will determine if beetle-killed trees have an effect on elk movement.
“In this part of the state it’s a pretty big impact, landscape scale impact on elk habitat. And so, we are just trying to understand as tree disease progresses how are elk responding to that. It could affect forage availability and quality for the females. It could also affect security for the bulls,” said FWP’s Kelly Proffitt.
The goal of the study is to assist forest managers to better manage for healthy wildlife populations.