The Centennial: A quiet valley teaming with wildlife

The Centennial Valley is rich in wetlands that support about 261 bird species, including great blue herons. Photos © Jim Steinberg/Portfolio Publications

Quick facts about the Centennial

Home to the 45,000-acre Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

Provides a linkage corridor for large predators like grizzly bears.

It's the site for trumpeter swan recovery efforts

Contains the densest breeding population of peregrine falcons and ferruginous hawks in Montana.

The Red Rock River system is home to Arctic grayling, one of Montana’s rarest fish species.

For more about the Centennial's biological significance.

A trip to the Centennial Valley is like entering a time warp. Visible reminders of the valley’s once lively history contrast with the quiet of the valley today.

A rope mark on a 300-year-old Douglas fir on the valley’s eastern end is evidence of the Centennial’s significance as a tourist route to Yellowstone Park in the late 1800s. A stagecoach ferried tourists from Monida Pass on the Montana/Idaho border to the park, which lies just 20 miles from the Centennial Valley. Legend has it that the rope mark is where the stagecoach tied its horses during a rest stop.

After the Centennial’s heyday as a tourist route, it quieted down again after the turn of the century when large bands of sheep grazed the valley. Rancher Jerry Scheid’s father tended about 15,000 ewes in the 1930s and ‘40s. Today, sheep fences still wind throughout the valley.

After sheep came cattle. "There used to be families on all the cattle ranches in the valley," less than a few decades ago, says Scheid. He remembers when 60 to 70 people would gather together during holidays or brandings. "They’d camp out and eat and drink together for several days."

But those days are gone. Today the valley has few full-time residents. "The valley has de-populated," says Scheid, who owns a ranch in the Centennial but makes his home in Idaho Falls, Idaho. "Most of the ranchers leave in the winter and take their cattle with them."

The long harsh winters, great distance to population centers, and lack of electricity and paved roads have limited human presence here. Except for cattle, a few cabins, or a rancher’s truck throwing up dust on the gravel road in summer, this high wide valley exudes serenity. It is the quiet home of birds and waterfowl, antelope, moose and elk, and the predators that follow them.

Yet for all its tranquility, the Centennial rocks with importance.

It is today’s escape route from Yellowstone Park. The rapid-fire development that is occurring throughout the Greater Yellowstone region poses a threat to ranching and to the area’s vital wildlife habitat. One of the West’s most important populations of the endangered grizzly is in danger of being confined to the park, which would compromise the genetic vitality of the breeding population. The Centennial is now considered to be one of the few viable corridors for grizzlies and other predators to migrate out of Yellowstone into Idaho and the Northern Rockies.

A 1991 biological assessment ranked the Centennial as one of the highest priorities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem because of its expansive wetlands, intact ecological systems, diverse native fauna and flora, and linkage zones for migratory ungulates and predators. The valley contains some of the oldest forest in southwest Montana. It has the highest nest density in the West for trumpeter swans, and the Red Rock River system is home to Arctic grayling, one of Montana’s rarest fish species. The valley’s wetland complex is the largest in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, hosting 261 bird species and the densest breeding population of peregrine falcons and ferruginous hawks in Montana.

Given the unusual opportunity to work with a small number of local landowners to protect the valley, the Conservancy launched its community-based project here in 1998. The Conservancy's Southwest Montana program director Tim Swanson began by going door to door to meet with landowners. He learned of their interest in preventing the spread of noxious weeds, a serious problem in many western Montana landscapes. He recruited student interns from Montana State University, who worked with local officials to set up a weed district for the watershed. Now it’s the largest weed district in Montana, and this summer, six Conservancy interns worked to control weeds in both the Centennial and Big Hole Valleys.

Several interns also worked on research and restoration projects. In one project, Conservancy intern Nathan Korb worked with Randy Gazda, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Wildlife program, to plant willows along Red Rock River and its tributaries. The Partners program, along with the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, are part of a collaborative team working with the Conservancy to improve wildlife habitat in the Centennial.

The effort has convinced ranchers and county officials that the Conservancy is serious about weeds and land conservation in the valley. "The Conservancy worked to get some exceptionally adept interns who worked with the area ranchers. That has gone a long way to improve the image of the Conservancy," said Garth Haugland, a Beaverhead County commissioner.