Return of the Swans

By Erin Madison

Swans will teach you patience. That’s the mantra of Bill Long, Founder of the Wyoming Wetlands Society. Bill has been working for nearly four decades to restore the population of trumpeter swans in the Rocky Mountain region. While trumpeter swan numbers are improving, it hasn’t happened over night.

“They live to be about 25 years of age,” Bill said. “A lot of times they don’t breed until they’re 5.”

Bill, along with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, with funding from NorthWestern Energy, recently released five young swans, or cygnets, in the Madison Valley, near Ennis, Montana. “This is a long-term investment,” Bill said. The hope is those swans will find mates and begin breeding in the Madison Valley.

“We really want to get breeding pairs,” said Claire Gower, wildlife biologist with Montana FWP.

NorthWestern Energy has been funding swan releases in the Madison Valley since 2015, said Grant Grisak, biologist with NorthWestern.

Trumpeters were overhunted for their feathers, which were used to adorn hats and to make writing quills. By the late 1800s, the population of trumpeter swans in North America was decimated. Habitat conservation efforts and swan reintroductions have helped restore trumpeter swan populations, but the birds remain a species of special concern.

NorthWestern Energy and our partners have done extensive habitat and wetlands restoration in the Madison Valley. The true measure of success of those projects is for species of special concern to thrive in areas that have been restored, Grant said. That’s why NorthWestern Energy funds swan releases.

Releasing swans in the Madison Valley is just one piece of a larger swan management plan, the goal of which is to link swan populations from the Tetons, Yellowstone, Madison Valley, Blackfoot River, Flathead and into Canada.

Trumpeter swans imprint on the place they learn to fly, meaning wherever they learn to fly is where they consider to be home. These cygnets had never flown before.

“The more birds we have, the more mixing we’re going to have,” Claire said.

Already, GPS collars show birds from the Flathead and Blackfoot have overwintered in the Ruby Valley. A Madison swan spent one winter in Rexburg, Idaho, and now moves between the Madison and Ruby valleys.

FWP is already seeing successful breeding in the Madison Valley. However, it’s unknown exactly how many breeding pairs are in the valley. The goal is to have five.

Swan releases are done in the fall, when the birds, which are raised by the Wyoming Wetlands Society, are 2 to 3 months old. Ideally, cygnets have spent enough time with their parents to learn to survive in the wild and are ready to begin flying.

Trumpeter swans imprint on the place they learn to fly, meaning wherever they learn to fly is where they consider to be home and where they’ll always return to.

“These birds have not flown except for here,” Bill said after releasing the cygnets at Ennis Lake.

The night before the swan release, Bill tracked the GPS collars of two yearling swans that were nearby the release site. Ideally, the yearlings will help the cygnets adapt to life in the wild and possibly even form breeding pairs.

“This is perfect,” Bill said after releasing the five cygnets. “They’re on a big lake. They’ll find the other birds.”