Vital Ground protects critical grizzly habitat in northwestern Montana

The Yaak Mountain acquisition is the first for the Cabinet-Purcell-Selkirk Wildlife Linkage Initiative-a collaborative effort launched by Vital Ground in 2008 with a capacity grant from the joint US-Canada based Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative to protect dwindling habitat connections between U.S. and Canadian grizzly bear populations. Grizzly bear movements within and around the Cabinet-Purcell-Selkirk corridor have become extremely restricted and in some areas no longer possible due to significant and increasing habitat fragmentation. If habitat connectivity to more genetically and demographically robust populations in Canada is not preserved, the viability of grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states will be further compromised. To guard against this, Vital Ground works in partnership with local landowners as well as agency and NGO stakeholders to protect and maintain secure linkage zones through voluntary, incentive-based private land acquisitions and conservation easements.

"We are pleased that we can work in collaboration with Vital Ground and a willing seller to purchase a parcel of private land that is strategic at the Yellowstone to Yukon scale," says Harvey Locke, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative's Strategic Advisor. "This acquisition will advance our vision of connecting a wildlife corridor that extends from Yellowstone to Yukon, as well as our collective work towards grizzly conservation and mobility."  

The purchase of the Yaak Mountain property is the result of several years of planning and analysis by a partnership consisting of representatives from the USFWS's Grizzly Bear Recovery Office; Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative; Trans-border Grizzly Bear Project; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; and Vital Ground. Extensive focal species research and an assessment of conservation capacity suggest that significant contributions to the ecological integrity of the Cabinet, Purcell and Selkirk regions could be made through strategic conservation investments in several relatively small, but well defined, linkage locations. Computer modeling was used to identify specific properties that possess significant value to linkage habitat. Through that process, the Yaak Mountain parcel was deemed a top priority for protection.

To support the Cabinet-Purcell-Selkirk Wildlife Linkage Initiative, Vital Ground launched The Right Place™ Campaign earlier this year, using the Yaak Mountain purchase option contract as the campaign's cornerstone project. The campaign is a multi-year outreach and fundraising approach for protecting the wildlife linkage areas that will allow grizzly bears and other wildlife to naturally move south from Canada into the Bitterroot Ecosystem-a 3.7 million-acre area of unoccupied grizzly habitat made up of two wilderness areas in Central Idaho.

"When we launched The Right Place™ Campaign outreach effort, we immediately discovered that there is tremendous interest and enthusiasm for the concept of maintaining wildlife linkage, but there are not many opportunities to make direct, tangible contributions to that type of work," says Gary Wolfe, Vital Ground's  Executive Director. "This partnership has outlined several years worth of specific opportunities to benefit the most threatened grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states, and it will ultimately promote the repopulation of the currently uninhabited Bitterroot Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone."

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative provided a major incentive for the Yaak Mountain project by offering a dollar-for-dollar matching grant up to 50% of the project's cost. In addition to donations from many Vital Ground individual contributors, significant matching funding was also provided by Wildlife Conservation Society, William H. Donner Foundation, Wilburforce Foundation via the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, Qureshi Family Foundation, Johnson Family Foundation, Montana Coffee Traders, Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield Chapter of the American Association of Zookeepers, and the Cinnabar Foundation.

Now that Vital Ground has set a cornerstone with the Yaak Mountain acquisition, attention will be turned to the initiative's second priority-five parcels totaling 187 acres, which the organization holds under an option to purchase contract through mid-December of this year. That acquisition will be Vital Ground's largest single fee-title acquisition fundraising challenge to date, with a project budget estimated at $1.15 million.

About Vital Ground
The Vital Ground Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to protect and restore North America's grizzly bear populations by conserving wildlife habitat. Operating as a land trust, the organization cooperates with private landowners, local communities, state and federal agencies, and other NGOs to protect wildlife habitat resources throughout the Northern Rockies. Since its founding in 1990, Vital Ground has helped to protect and enhance well over one half-million acres of habitat crucial to grizzly bears and other wildlife in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, and British Columbia. For more information, call 406-549-8650 or visit www.vitalground.org.

About Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is a joint US-Canada non-profit organization that works with over 135 partners to implement a shared vision for conserving the biodiversity of a 500,000 square mile region stretching from Yellowstone National Park to the northern Yukon. Yellowstone to Yukon takes a scientific approach to conservation and is recognized as one of the planet's leading mountain conservation initiatives. Established in 1997, Yellowstone to Yukon has two offices located in Canmore, Alberta and Missoula, Montana. For more information, call 403 609 2666 ext 3 or visit www.y2y.net.

Media Contacts
Kelly O'Brien, The Vital Ground Foundation, kobrien@vitalground.org, 406-549-8650.
Harvey Locke, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, harvey@wild.org, 720-207-4506.