Greater Yellowstone region grizzly biodiversity gets a boost

Here’s another great article by Rob Chaney . . .

Greater Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population has grown by at least two this spring.

Federal and state biologists count grizzlies every year, although they don’t usually get this granular. But when a Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife monitoring flight on March 27 brought back the photo of Grizzly 1126F outside her Teton Wilderness hibernation den with two cubs clearly tussling beside her, the discovery checked some special scientific and legal boxes.

“She’s clearly in great shape, for a young mother coming out of the den,” said Quentin Kujala, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Chief of Conservation Policy. “That’s the gold standard to the point of cub production.”

Continue reading . . .

Feds reject petitions to delist grizzlies, recommend recovery goal revisions

This sounds like a really good idea. If they can make it stick . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Wednesday rejected petitions by state governments in Montana and Wyoming to delist grizzly bears in their respective recovery zones, moving instead to establish a single distinct population segment encompassing grizzly habitat in both states, as well as in Idaho and Washington.

“This reclassification will facilitate recovery of grizzly bears and provide a stronger foundation for eventual delisting,” FWS Director Martha Williams said in a prepared statement. “And the proposed changes to our … rule will provide management agencies and landowners more tools and flexibility to deal with human/bear conflicts, an essential part of grizzly bear recovery.”

The agency announced it is publishing an independently peer-reviewed updated species status assessment that compiles the best available scientific information, which helps to inform decision-making.

Continue reading . . .

#grizzlyBearRecovery

Bears translocated to Yellowstone ecosystem exploring new territory, map shows

This is pretty interesting. This past summer, Montana FWP translocated a couple of adult grizzlies from the Middle Fork Flathead to the Yellowstone area. Here’s what happened . . .

The lines on the map look like the doodling of a toddler. The pink line makes big loops that sometimes overlap. The green line is wound so tightly, it just looks like a big blob. Though they sometimes get close to each other, they seldom intersect.

The lines show the movements of the female grizzly bear (pink) and male grizzly bear (green) that were relocated from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) this past summer. Both ecosystems have populations of grizzly bears that have surpassed recovery goals. However, the translocation effort was designed to help increase the genetic diversity of the GYE population, which has been isolated from nearby populations for many years. It’s an effort that may be repeated in the future, depending on how close the two populations eventually grow.

“This just jump starts what very likely will also happen naturally,” said Ken McDonald, head of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Wildlife Division.

Continue reading . . .

#grizzlyBearRecovery

Group petitions Fish and Wildlife Service to revise grizzly recovery plan based on new report

Kudos to Randy Kenyon for spotting this one . . .

A petition has been submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by 15 environmental groups, urging a revision of the 1993 Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan based on a new report by former grizzly recovery manager Chris Servheen. The report argues against delisting grizzlies from the Endangered Species Act and suggests managing them as a single metapopulation in the Northern Rockies. Servheen highlights significant population growth since the species was listed in 1975, but notes ongoing threats, including human-caused deaths and habitat loss. The petition emphasizes the need for stronger regulations and education to promote coexistence between humans and grizzlies. It critiques current state policies that may harm grizzly populations and calls for a collaborative recovery framework involving Tribal, State, and Federal agencies. The report stresses that successful recovery requires connectivity between isolated populations to enhance genetic diversity and resilience against climate change. The petition aims to influence decisions on grizzly protections expected by the end of January.

Read full article at the Daily Montanan . . .

See also this article in the Flathead Beacon . . .

#ChrisServheen #grizzlyBearRecovery

Excellent summary of the current status of the suit challenging the Flathead Forest’s rules for decommissioning roads . . .

A federal judge in Missoula issued a June 28 order recognizing that logging roads intensify pressure on grizzly bears and can displace them from their habitat even if forest managers have closed the roads to motorized use and deemed them “impassable,” an ineffective standard the agencies employ when approving new roadbuilding for timber projects on the Flathead National Forest.

Barring an appeal from the plaintiffs, the ruling concludes a legal saga that began in April 2019 when two local conservation groups, Friends of the Wild Swan and Swan View Coalition, sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Flathead National Forest (FNF) over the road-building provisions in FNF’s revised forest plan. The new ruling by U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen acknowledged that grizzly bears have learned to avoid roads — even closed roads — and are often displaced from habitat that features them. The ruling builds upon a favorable decision for conservation groups in March, when a federal magistrate found that the FWS and FNF failed to lawfully examine the impacts to grizzly bears and bull trout from motorized trespass on closed roads.

Although Christensen acknowledged that the ongoing chronic problem of ineffective road closures and unauthorized motorized access can negatively impact grizzly bears, he stopped short of prohibiting approval of any future timber projects under the revised plan as currently written. Instead, Christensen remanded the provisions of the plan that violated the Endangered Species Act back to the agencies for further consideration.

Continue reading . . .

https://www.gravel.org/2024/07/01/roads-ruling-in-flathead-forest-lawsuit-favors-grizzly-advocacy-groups/

#FlatheadNationalForest #grizzlyBearRecovery

Sierra Club and Save the Yellowstone Grizzly  is showing Return of the Grizzly around the region. It is scheduled to be shown at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish on Jan 29th at 5:30pm with a question and answer period to follow. This is a project spearheaded by Doug Peacock. NFPA is a co-sponsor of this presentation.

This powerful 37-minute documentary follows the path and challenges of the “explorer bear,” the pioneering young male grizzlies that come from small, isolated core populations. The grizzly bear needs to explore and pioneer new habitats to spread its gene pool, and its long journeys are increasingly driven–and hemmed in–by the ravages of climate change. Return of the Grizzly is premiering NOW at numerous theaters in the West.

https://www.gravel.org/2024/01/27/return-of-the-grizzly-film-showing-jan-29th-530pm/

#grizzlyBearRecovery