From January bear sightings to berry growth worries, what’s up with this winter?
If you live in the western United States, or know someone who does, you’re probably tired of hearing it: Awfully dry out there… What a weird winter… Felt like April in January.
Variations on the same refrain have been echoing around the region since the calendar turned to 2026 and a once-promising snowpack began to shrivel all across the West. While the past week finally brought a round of winter weather to Montana, most parts of the Northern Rockies have a significant deficit to make up.
“Most Montana basins are now reporting below normal snowpack,” said Florence Miller, a hydrologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), in an early-February report from the agency. “While some higher elevations are holding onto their snowpack reserves, mid elevation snowpack is falling behind, and low elevation snowpack is noticeably absent.”
What does a dry winter mean for grizzlies?
Warmer and drier weather impacts grizzly bears in many ways, from altering the timing of winter denning to affecting the availability of important food sources like huckleberries. What might this year’s oddball winter mean?
There’s still time for late-winter and spring snow to help, and it’s important to remember that we won’t have a clear sense of potential summer impacts like streamflow and berry growth until well into spring, when the region typically reaches peak snowpack. But if the snow remains scanty at middle and low elevations, it could spell particular trouble for early-season bear foods, as bears leaving their dens often descend to lower elevations in search of the first spring plants sprouting from a landscape that comes to life as the currently-minimal snow melts.
Long before spring green-up, however, the dry January brought out at least two Yellowstone-area bears—a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park and a black bear near Jackson, Wyo.—in what should have been the middle of their denning period.
It’s rare but not unheard-of for bears to take a midwinter wander then return to denning, but if more bears emerge in late February or early March it could lead to problems. Before spring plant foods become available, scavenging winterkill—usually deer, elk or bison carcasses—represents the primary natural food source for early-rising bears. But that option relies on animals perishing from exposure during severe cold spells, which have been few and far between this season.
What we know for sure is that when natural food sources dry up, bears living near developed areas will turn to a human-associated diet: garbage, backyard birdfeeders, livestock and many other temptations. And once they become habituated to seeking food near people, it rarely ends well for the bear.
How you can help bears stay safe
While most grizzlies and black bears should remain snug in their dens for at least a few more weeks, the January sightings are a reminder that it’s never too early to practice bear safety—whether you’re out recreating on the landscape or a landowner with attractants that could bring a hungry bear onto your property. Our Bear Safety Hub has lots of information and resources to help.
You can also do your part to keep bears safe by supporting Vital Ground’s habitat protection and conflict prevention efforts. Our projects to conserve and restore habitat in key corridors allow bears to move safely between wild strongholds and avoid people, while our local partnerships around the region fund proven coexistence tools like bear-resistant garbage programs, electric fencing for ranchers and much more.
Just how dry this winter ends up being—and how harshly it will impact bears—remains to be seen, just as the larger backdrop of the climate crisis carries deep uncertainty and risk for many wildlife species, some of which are threatened much more directly by low snowpack than grizzlies.
One thing is for sure, however: from bears to butterflies, protecting habitat and preventing conflicts will enable Nature’s resilience to endure across the changing seasons ahead.