Th e G re ate r Ye l lowsto ne
Interest in and commitment to the future of grizzlies by state and Federal agencies managing wildlife and habitat was inconsistent and in some cases minimal.
he dramatic recovery of the Yellowstone bears is due to close cooperation among state and federal agencies, careful management of the bears and their habitat, and careful and comprehensive science that is annually transformed into good management decisions by State, Federal, Tribal, and county partners. Robust population growth, cooperative management of mortality and habitat, widespread public support for grizzly bear recovery, and the development of a comprehensive Conservation Strategy brought the Yellowstone grizzly bear population to the point where delisting was appropriate and completed in 2007. Although the delisting was eventually overturned in court in 2009, based on the one issue of how declines in whitebark pine might affect grizzly bears, the grizzly population remains healthy, and efforts are underway to consider another proposal to delist this population.
advice from non-agency university scientists. The research of these scientists at the University of Idaho revealed that the Yellowstone grizzly population is not presently threatened by genetic inbreeding problems and that its viability will not be affected by genetic factors in the foreseeable future for many decades, if at all. The agencies would like to see the Yellowstone ecosystem grizzly population eventually connected to the Northern Continual Divide grizzly population in northwest Montana. This will eventually result in genetic linkage across the continental divide from the Canadian border at Glacier National Park, to the southern end of the Wind River Range in Wyoming, a distance of over 500 miles. To achieve this vision for grizzlies and for many other wildlife species in the Northern Rockies, there is a cooperative effort underway by all the state and federal agencies managing grizzlies in the US and partner agencies in Canada to work together to improve wildlife movement opportunities across the northern Rockies landscape. This cooperative work involves improving the permeability of highways for bears and other wildlife; working with land management agencies to improve careful management in important linkage areas to maintain wildlife habitat security; and working in cooperation with county governments to assist them in private land development decisions within linkage areas to make these decisions more compatible with the needs of wildlife. This agency linkage work is in partnership with land conservation partners including the Nature Conservancy, Vital Ground, and the Trust for Public Lands. These partnerships work to make it economically attractive for private owners to keep their land in open space so that wildlife can successfully move through them within linkage zones. These efforts to maintain movement opportunities for bears and other wildlife are ongoing and will continue.
To be sure that inbreeding is not a threat to the Yellowstone grizzly population, the agencies sought
As of 2012, grizzlies have been documented half way between the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem
Tourist entertainment, 1929. NPS
lands inside the recovery zone; 3) successful efforts to keep garbage away from bears by closing the remaining open pit dumps outside the Parks, placing bear-resistant garbage cans throughout the Parks and on Forest Service lands, and instituting food storage regulations in backcountry areas so that bears could no longer get into camp food, game meat, and horse feed; and 4) building public understanding and support for the needs of bears so that the people who live, work, and recreate in grizzly habitat did so in ways that minimized detrimental impacts on bears.
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