Montana turning roadkill into compost

KALISPELL, Mont. – An innovative way of getting rid of roadkill in the Bitterroot Valley may be expanded to other areas of the state.

The Montana Department of Transportation has been composting dead deer found along U.S. 93 between Lolo and Lost Trail Pass for about a year, rather than taking them to the Missoula landfill or dumping them somewhere to decompose naturally.

Rapid growth in the Bitterroot Valley had made it harder to find random dump sites, and the landfill was getting expensive – about $135 a deer, according to the department’s maintenance chief, Doug Moeller.

Now, crews are taking dead deer to a small composting facility near Victor.

“It’s worked very well,” said Cora Helm with the department’s hazardous waste section. “We’ve successfully composted more than 500 deer.”

During the process, deer are covered with sawdust, wood chips and other natural vegetative waste. Bacteria, fungi and other microbes break down the waste material to produce a rich humus that can be used to enrich soil.

Worried about germs? Don’t be. Officials say the process generates enough heat to kill any harmful pathogens, like e. coli and salmonella.

The compost doesn’t smell very bad either, Helm said.

“When you’re standing close and there’s a fresh deer in it, you can smell it,” she said. “But it doesn’t take long for the smell to go away.”

Helm said the deer compost could eventually be used in revegetation projects along the state’s highways.

“Right now, we have to buy compost,” she said. “There are a lot of roadside areas that aren’t being revegetated because we don’t have the money. This could help.”

Helm is hoping to expand roadkill composting to other Department of Transportation maintenance districts around the state because of the Victor project’s success.