State studies plans for wildlife parks

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is considering permits for a "roadside menagerie" with lions and tigers and bears for separate locations east of Kalispell and Ferndale.

Wild Eyes Animal and Photo Adventures has for years been located north of Columbia Falls on the shoreline of Spoon Lake, with a separate location on Cottonwood Drive just east of Kalispell that has been used as a photography site.

Wild Eyes was recently sold by Hans and Ginger Lueck to Rod Nelson, who plans to continue the photography site on Cottonwood Drive and establish a new animal compound at 80681 Montana 83, just east of Ferndale.

Nelson is proposing a facility to hold one brown bear, eight Siberian tigers, one leopard, two badgers, one mountain lion, one bobcat, one black bear, two wolves, one African lion and a Canadian lynx.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently released a draft environmental assessment that spells out terms and conditions for the operation. Nelson's proposal and the environmental assessment are available for public review and comment through May 6.

The proposal has already generated concern. Valerie Galloway lives right across from the entrance to the Cottonwood Drive photography site and is concerned about the facility's safety.

"There's children, there's pets and these are natural predators that they are bringing in here," Galloway said.

There was little attention or controversy when the former Wild Eyes owners were permitted to operate at the Cottonwood Drive site, Galloway said. Some neighbors, in fact, didn't even know about it.

But now that it must be permitted for a new owner, Galloway said the operation will get more scrutiny from her and other area residents.

"This is right in Evergreen," she said. "This is not the North Fork or the South Fork. This is a heavily populated area."

Nelson proposes to periodically remove and transport animals from the Ferndale compound to the photography site, which will be required to have an eight-foot perimeter fence with facilities for loading and unloading animals.

"For the large carnivores and omnivores, the animals must be maintained behind an electrified fence constructed within the closure and between the photographers and the animals," the environmental assessment says.

The Ferndale compound will be required to have a series of cages constructed of cattle panels with wire tops. For large animals, an electric interior perimeter wire is required. The cages must be surrounded by a chain-link fence at least eight feet high.

The environmental analysis concludes that "There is a possibility of animals escaping and injuring someone. The facility design and construction agreed to by the applicant, however, reduces that possibility below the level of significance."

Among other conditions, the document requires the constant presence of a trained employee at the facility, that animal food be kept in cold storage to avoid attracting wild animals, that transported animals must be loaded and unloaded in a secured area, and that the owner must provide "security, appropriate diet, and competent management and veterinary staff to ensure proper husbandry and medical care of captive animals."

The owner must agree to cooperate with and reimburse Fish, Wildlife and Parks for "reasonable and mutually agreed-upon costs directly associated with the agency's capture or destruction of a captive animal that escapes or a wild animal that enters the facility."

A contingency plan that outlines specific coordination procedures between the owner and the agency "if such events occur" also is required.

After hearing from the public, the state will develop a final environmental assessment followed by a decision whether to permit the operation.

Copies of the draft environmental assessment are available at Fish, Wildlife and Parks headquarters on Meridian Road in Kalispell or at the Bigfork and Kalispell branches of the Flathead County Library.

Comments may be directed to Tom Litchfield, area wildlife biologist, Fish, Wildlife and Parks, 490 N. Meridian, Kalispell, MT, 59901 or by e-mail at: tlitchfield@mt.gov

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com