Bears, humans both enjoy prime pickin's

It's turning out to be a bumper crop summer for huckleberries in the Flathead.

Local buyers and pickers are saying it may be one of the best harvests in recent years. There are even signs that bears may see it that way, too.

After picking for five hours Wednesday morning, Ben Foss showed up at the Wild Rose on Montana 40 to sell two gallons of berries for $70.

"I'd say this is the best year I've ever had," said Foss, who has been picking in the area for the last five summers.

"It's a huge crop," said Roy Rogers, owner of the Wild Rose. "We've already bought more local berries this year than the last three years combined."

And that's roughly just two weeks into a season that likely will extend several more weeks at higher elevations.

"We are having a really good crop this year," said Shauna Clevidence at the Huckleberry Patch in Hungry Horse. "It was late coming in, but the berries are really big this year. They are as big as blueberries."

The potential downside of the delayed season, said Rogers, is that because of school resuming, there may be fewer pickers in the woods when the crop peaks in the latter part of August.

"Right now I'd say probably between 25 and 30 people are bringing in berries every day," Rogers added. "They're usually the same people."

He estimates the Wild Rose has purchased about 400 gallons of berries.

"We pay as much as $6 a pound to the cleanest pickers," Rogers said.

Over at the Huckleberry Patch, pickers are paid in the range of $5 to $7 a pound, Clevidence said.

"We're kind of picky," she said. "They need to be bigger and cleaned and packaged" to fetch higher prices.

Clevidence said she spent last weekend camping and huckleberry picking near Hungry Horse Reservoir.

"There were a lot of people out picking. Berries were just everywhere," she said. "We would pick one day and they would be ripe again the next day on the same bushes."

The crop has made a big difference in the summer workload of Eric Wenum, wildlife conflict specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

"I can tell you that on the bear front, things have been very quiet because the huckleberries have been really good," said Wenum, who typically has to work with bears that get into trouble seeking food near homes when natural food supplies are low.

This year, Wenum has been busy in the woods trapping and monitoring research bears, and as a result, he has gotten a good look at the huckleberry crop in many areas.

"The low-elevation stuff is on in full force," he said. "The mid-slope berries are coming on, but look very promising."

Some summers, huckleberries can be patchy, good in some areas but not in others.

The only exception this year, Wenum said, may be the highest elevation areas, especially on north facing slopes, where huckleberry shrubs may have been frosted by a mid-June snowstorm.

Huckleberries will be following a "ripening line" upslope as the summer progresses, but for now the best pickings are at lower elevations and so are the bears.

"All the bears that we know of - radio-collared bears - are on low slopes and they are in the hucks," he said.

Because bears are at low elevations, Wenum said, rural residents need to remain diligent about not having food attractants outside.

"If they can find easy foods, they'll eat that, too," he said.

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