The draft grizzly bear management plan for western Montana was released this week by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It outlines future grizzly bear management in 17 western Montana counties, outside the greater Yellowstone area.
“We feel it's time to have a discussion with the people of Montana on the future direction of management for grizzly bears,” said A. Dood, FWP's endangered species coordinator.
FWP's vision includes a core population of 500 or more grizzlies in the northern Continental Divide ecosystem and between 90 and 125 bears in the Cabinet-Yaak.
It would maintain effective biological connections between those two core areas, and would work to maintain linkage habitat between bear populations in Canada and potential habitat in the Bitterroots.
And someday, FWP officials hope that grizzly bears living in the north will interact with the existing population in the greater Yellowstone area.
“Our goal is to find ways to fit grizzly bears in across a broader landscape as a part of Montana's wildlife heritage and respond to the increasing number and distribution of bears,” Dood said. “After completing the grizzly bear plan for the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, we began the process of reviewing our programs for the rest of western Montana.”
With grizzlies showing up in areas where they haven't been seen for generations, Dood said, the focus will likely shift away from recovery zones.
The department looked at a variety of alternatives for each ecosystem, focusing on the kinds of management activities FWP conducts to ensure human safety, prevent conflicts with livestock and mitigate property damage.
FWP looked at each recovery zone and evaluated current programs in those areas. It analyzed three alternatives and pointed out which it preferred.
In the 2,600-square-mile Cabinet-Yaak recovery zone in northwest Montana and northern Idaho, grizzly bear recovery has been tenuous.
“Recovery has been pretty slow,” Dood said. “There's a fairly small number of bears in the recovery area. Any kind of mortality has an impact.”
FWP's preferred alternative would relocate 10 to 15 female bears from other areas - most likely from the northern Continental Divide or possibly Canada - into the recovery zone over the next three to five years.
After the initial effort is complete, the program would be evaluated and, if successful, additional bears would be relocated until the population reached 90 to 120 bears.
Researchers do have a track record to show that relocation can work.
In the 1990s, four female grizzlies were relocated into the area as a test, Dood said. Recent DNA sampling suggests that at least one of the females and its offspring have survived, he said.
Human-caused mortality and the challenges bears have in crossing U.S. Highway 2 will play a role in the success of the program.
In the sprawling 9,600-square-mile northern Continental Divide - which extends south from the Canadian border to the Blackfoot River basin, including the Rocky Mountain Front and the Flathead and Mission valleys - grizzly bear numbers are estimated at 500 to 700.
“Efforts there have resulted in a healthy population of bears,” Dood said. “We don't plan on doing anything different.”
The proposed plan doesn't call for relocating bears into the expansive 16-million-acre Bitterroot Mountains of western Montana and central Idaho.
Instead, the state would begin a program to prepare for the anticipated presence of bears either through natural migration or through a federal decision to reintroduce grizzlies. The approach calls for an intense sanitation and public education program.
The draft plan is available for review in Bozeman at FWP's Region 3 Headquarters and in Helena at the FWP Headquarters, the Montana State Library, and the Environmental Quality Council. It is also available on FWP's Web site at fwp.mt.gov/publicnotices /notice_1137.aspx or by calling the FWP regional headquarters in Bozeman at 994-4042.
Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 523-5259 or at pbackus@missoulian.com
Have your say
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will take public comment on the new grizzly management plan at these hearings:
Sept. 11 - Choteau at the Stage Stop Inn, 1005 Main Ave. N.
Sept. 12 - Great Falls at the FWP Headquarters, 4600 Giant Springs Road
Sept. 13 - Lincoln at Lambkins Restaurant
Sept. 14 - Helena at the FWP Commission Room, 1420 E. 6th Ave.
Sept. 18 - Thompson Falls at the Sanders County Courthouse, Third Floor
Sept. 19 - Libby at the Venture Inn, 433 Highway 2 W.
Sept. 29 - Eureka at the Lincoln Electric Meeting Room
Sept. 21 - Kalispell at the FWP Headquarters, 490 N. Meridian Road
Sept. 25 - Hamilton at the Daly-Lead Memorial Chapel, 1010 W. Main St.
Sept. 26 - Missoula at the FWP Headquarters, 3201 Spurgin Road
Sept. 27 - Seeley Lake at the Senior Citizens' Center
All meetings are from 7 to 9 p.m.
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