Page 62 - Flathead Beacon // 2.19.14

62 | FEBRUARY 19, 2014
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

OUTDOORS

Conservation

Canine Joins the

Fight Against

Invasive Species

To help defend against aquatic intruders,

Flathead oicials are bringing in a Belgian

shepherd dog named Pepin

I
By DILLON TABISH of the Beacon

n the ongoing battle to defend a pristine watershed against
aquatic invasive species, the Flathead Basin is gaining a new
four-legged resource.
Pepin, an 8-year-old Belgian malinois, is a trained detec-
tion dog and one of the inest conservation canines in the world.
Using his keen sense of smell, Pepin has traveled to 12 countries
and helped researchers locate the most elusive endangered spe-

cies, discovered nonnative plants and invertebrates and snifed
out dangerous hazards like toxic chemicals or metal snares hid-
den to the human eye.
Now his expertise is being brought to Northwest Montana,
where invasive plants and mussels pose a constant and critical
threat to the region’s rivers and lakes.
“If detection dogs can help we’d like to be part of that,” said
Pete Coppolillo, executive director of Working Dogs for Conser-

vation, an organization based in Bozeman that became one of the
irst to train detection dogs when it was founded by four biologists
in 2000.
Coppolillo and Meg Parker, the director of research at WDC,
introduced Pepin and his innovative abilities at last week’s Flat-
head Basin Commission meeting in Kalispell. The commission,
established by the Legislature in 1983 as a task force for protect-

ing the water quality of the Flathead River drainage, plans to use

Working Dogs for Conservation’s Belgian Malinois, Pepin, gets excited before he
demonstrates his sniing techniques. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

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