“THE WATERFOWL MITIGATION ON THE BERKELEY PIT” By Gary Swant                     

 Headlines November/December, 2016: “Metals, acid in the Berkeley Pit Water (Butte, Montana) killed 3,000 to 4,000 Geese, forced to land due to bad weather”

Do you remember this news and have you wondered what has happened since then to prevent a similar tragedy? On Monday, September 16^th, at the Bitterroot Audubon meeting, Gary Swant will present the work that the “Berkeley Pit Waterfowl Mitigation Committee” has been doing since that “die off”. This Committee was formed after the above event at the request of Montana Resources and Atlantic Richfield to address solutions to the problem. Swant is currently on the Advisory Board for the Committee. He will review the steps that have been taken, the equipment and manpower needed and the results to date.

Gary described the following: “As a committee we first focused on a scientific method of hazing the various species of waterfowl off the pit, using rifles, drones, sirens, remote control boats, lasers, and air cannons.  In this process, we have found that one procedure does not fit all waterfowl, and we have developed different protocols for divers, dippers, grebes and loons.  We also found a different protocol is needed for day verses night migrators. We have trained pit miners on the identification of waterfowl and established record keeping that allows students at Montana Tech to apply statistics to our data with interesting outcomes.  The pit is monitored hourly during high migration seasons.  We have now established a 99% success rate of hazing waterfowl off the pit once they have landed. Our next project is to develop methods that keep waterfowl from landing, which is more difficult.

The waterfowl activity at the pit is directly related to the number of birds that are in the valley and we weekly survey 40 bodies of water in the Upper Clark Fork drainage so that we can predict activity at the pit.  The correlation between the pit and 50 species of birds that may possibly use the pit is directly tied to the waterfowl numbers at the Warm Springs Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and I will describe that area as well.

Participants will leave with a better understanding of what Montana Resources and Atlantic Richfield are attempting to achieve and most are surprised at the effort and the results that we attaining in our work.”

In 2018 Swant along with his co-researcher Professor Stella Capoccia of Montana Tech’s Biology Department received the 2018 Wildlife Conservation Award from the Montana Chapter of the Wildlife Society for their work in reducing bird mortality at the Berkeley Pit. As a board member of the Committee, Gary will continue searching for solutions to the waterfowl and white goose migration issues at the Berkeley Pit.

Swant has a long history in education, Birding, biology, Birding, ecology, Birding, writing and publishing, Birding -------

Swant attended high school in Deer Lodge, and received his Bachelor’s in Education with an emphasis in Biological Sciences and his Master’s in Education with an emphasis in Environmental Education from the University of Montana.  Swant taught biology and field ecology at Powell County High School in Deer Lodge for 25 years and retired in 1993. While teaching he received the Montana “Outstanding Biology Teacher” of the Year, Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching, and the Montana Environmental Educator of the Year.

 He has written numerous articles, curriculums, and science guides. He writes articles for three newspapers in Montana and received first place in outdoor writing for small newspapers in 2018 and second place in 2019.

Back to Birding: In 2005, Swant founded GoBirdMontana, LLC, which continues today, and conducts field ornithological research for private corporations, state, and federal agencies.  In 2016, Montana Audubon recognized Swant’s work by presenting him the 2016 Citizen Scientist Award. Swant holds the record for the most birds seen in a single year in Montana, a record that he set in 2007.  He is also in first place on ebird for total number of birds seen in Montana.  

What does he do when not birding professionally? He travels around the world with his wife, Laura Lee, to find BIRDS to add to his Bird Life List!! 

Plan to join Bitterroot Audubon Monday, September 16, 7:00 P.M. to gain a thorough understanding of what the Berkeley Pit Waterfowl Mitigation Committee, Montana Resources and Atlantic Richfield are attempting to achieve and the results already attained. The meeting will be held in the Visitors’ Center at the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, north of Stevensville on the Eastside Highway, go west on Wildfowl Lane. The Public is invited. Contact Becky Peters for more information, 369-5210.