Vital Ground Supports 18 Coexistence Projects Across Grizzly Country
As the seasonal calendar turns to fall, grizzly bears’ internal calendars turn them to urgently preparing for winter. Every autumn, bears enter hyperphagia, a biological state of intense hunger in which their bodies literally turn off the neurological process that makes them feel full. That means bears are constantly searching for a meal, loading as many calories as possible in preparation for denning.
When their searching leads them near people and their properties, it takes diligence to prevent trouble for everyone.
As an organization dedicated to the long-term conservation of grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states, Vital Ground is in the business of helping people prevent conflicts with bears, whether in the backyard, backcountry or on working landscapes. In addition to directly protecting grizzly habitat, Vital Ground supports coexistence projects by local groups and agencies across grizzly country. This fall, 18 partners will be working hard in crucial locations to help bears and people stay safe.
Preparing the Frontiers of Grizzly Range
Earlier this year, grizzly bear conservation reached a landmark moment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and National Park services announcing their plan to slowly reintroduce a grizzly population to the North Cascades Ecosystem of Washington state. After their absence from the area for most of the last century, grizzlies returning to their historic range in the Cascades will have help staying out of trouble with people.
Vital Ground has previously supported educational efforts to further public awareness of the grizzly’s history in the North Cascades, but 2024 marks our first partnership directly supporting conflict prevention for bears in the ecosystem. We’re proud to back the Methow Conservancy in their efforts to prepare communities along the eastern edge of the range for grizzlies’ presence through an electric fencing pilot program and bear-resistant dumpster installation.
Two hundred miles east of the Cascades, grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak area of Northwest Montana represent the species’ smallest current population in the Lower 48. Without a national park or large wilderness area to anchor habitat protections, coexistence efforts and bear awareness by people are crucial to the survival of these grizzlies. Each fall, the community of Troy rallies in the name of bear safety at the Troy Apple Festival, with Vital Ground supporting this local event that includes bear-aware education booths and an apple gleaning station to help landowners process the popular backyard attractant.
Another hundred miles east from the Cabinet-Yaak is the Blackfeet Nation, where bears range out of the habitat stronghold of Glacier National Park and tribal members continue to lead a time-tested relationship of coexistence with the species. With tourism pressures growing, new partnerships can further the cause as Vital Ground supports the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance in leading several bear-aware events and providing bear safety packets for vacation rentals and businesses. An additional partnership with the USDA’s NRCS and Pheasants Forever is helping equip landowners in the area with electric fencing and electric drive-over bear mats.
South and east of the Blackfeet Nation, grizzly bears are venturing farther onto historic prairie range than they have in a century. Three partnerships across the agricultural lands and communities of the Rocky Mountain Front region will help these pioneering bears, along with people and livestock, stay safe. The Conservation Science Collaborative leads a range rider program monitoring bear movements through ranchlands, while Teton Bear Smart will hold a fall bear-aware community event in Choteau and the Sun River Watershed Group supplies bear spray training materials for six different community events along the Front.
Safety and Connectivity from Montana into Yellowstone
Grizzlies moving south from the Glacier-Bob Marshall wilderness stronghold face a patchwork of roads, ranches and mountain ranges separating the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where the grizzly bear population remains genetically isolated from others. As bears continue to move through these connectivity zones in the southern NCDE and southwestern Montana, our conflict prevention partnerships increase their chances of survival and successful dispersal.
In Montana’s Blackfoot Valley, Vital Ground supports our longtime partners at the Blackfoot Challenge with their electric fencing program for ranches in conflict hotspots. In the nearby Seeley Lake area, Clearwater Valley Bear Smart is continuing a community safety effort launched last year by identifying hazards and containment strategies for local businesses. And on the other side of the Mission Mountains, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will run a fall fruit gleaning program and a community wildlife festival in the Mission Valley.
Farther south, landowners outside of Missoula can help bears move safely with assistance from the Great Bear Foundation and their fall apple pickup programs in the Missoula, Ninemile and Bitterroot valleys. The Wind River Bear Institute also provides a key resource in the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys: Karelian bear dogs that respond to incidents with a trained biologist, helping identify attractants and scare bears away from developed areas. Based in Missoula, the Be Bear Aware educational trailer travels to community events around western Montana and northern Idaho, with a new video project seeking to broaden public understanding of responsible bear safety.
East of the Bitterroot lie the broad rangelands and valleys bridging the habitat gap to Yellowstone. In the Upper Clark Fork Valley, Vital Ground is helping Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks continue their new, highly successful livestock carcass removal program that allows ranchers to quickly remove a major bear attractant from the landscape. Farther south, in the Madison Valley on the edge of Greater Yellowstone, People and Carnivores are responding to increased tourism by providing a crucial bear-aware toolkit for vacation rentals, restaurants and homeowners.
Due west of Yellowstone National Park, grizzlies are moving through Montana’s Centennial Valley toward the wilds of central Idaho in increasing numbers. The Centennial Valley Association helps these bears and the ranches that they cross coexist through a robust range rider program monitoring predator movements to inform livestock management.
Lastly, Vital Ground’s southernmost partnership of 2024 will help directly protect rich grizzly habitat in Greater Yellowstone’s southwestern buffer zone. Near the conflict hotspot of Island Park, Idaho, the Teton Regional Land Trust will conserve a 320-acre private inholding in Caribou-Targhee National Forest 10 miles west of the national park boundary, with a new conservation easement ensuring connected habitat for grizzlies and countless other wildlife species.
From the southern outskirts of Yellowstone to the new frontier of the North Cascades, Vital Ground is proud to support conflict prevention in the places where grizzlies need it most, as our partnerships continue to follow the priorities identified in our One Landscape Initiative. Of course, we couldn’t fund these crucial community-led efforts without our own supporters like you! Stay tuned for further updates on these great partners as well as several of our own habitat protection projects set to cross the finish line before the end of 2024.