Ruby Creek Land Acquisition Conserves Buffer Zone on Edge of Selkirk Mountains
The Lower 48’s two smallest grizzly bear populations got a boost in their slow road to durable recovery this week, as Vital Ground protected another key piece of habitat in the North Idaho landscape that connects them.
Just south of Bonners Ferry, the 200-acre acquisition along Ruby Creek will maintain a key habitat buffer on the eastern edge of the Selkirk Mountains. Bordering public lands, the protected property will keep open a movement channel for wildlife traveling to lower elevations and potentially ranging between the Selkirks and the Cabinet Mountains to the east.
“The lower elevations are bottlenecks for key species like grizzly bear, and the number one threat is the permanent loss of those habitats,” says Greg Johnson, a retired Idaho Fish and Game biologist who worked on grizzly recovery in the area for decades and lives near the project site. “There’s constant pressure to divide and develop land. Where Vital Ground has their most important role is to put together projects in those really key critical areas.”
Panhandle Protections
Containing mature stands of Douglas fir, western larch and other conifers, the project site includes rich riparian habitat along Ruby Creek with frequent use by moose, elk and deer as well as benchlands that provide spring forage for grizzlies descending from winter dens to lower elevations.
With the latest surveys from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee estimating just 50-100 grizzlies in the American portion of the Selkirks and a similar number in the neighboring Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, preventing subdivision and development in known seasonal habitat like Ruby Creek will directly aid the slow growth and genetic reconnection of these grizzly populations.
The project kicks off Vital Ground’s Idaho Panhandle Initiative (IPI), which aims to protect four more key habitat sites between the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak ecosystems, totaling more than 2,500 acres of conservation opportunities. Through a mix of land purchases and conservation agreements with landowners, the initiative will significantly benefit wildlife movement while maintaining open, scenic landscapes against the backdrop of region-wide development pressures.
“The Idaho Panhandle Initiative is our most ambitious effort yet to make sure northern Idaho continues to support both wildlife movement and the rural, scenic character that its residents cherish,” says Vital Ground Conservation Director Mitch Doherty. “These projects each carry unique habitat values that support not just regional grizzly recovery but entire webs of animal and plant life. We’ve been working with landowners on several of these conservation opportunities for decades and are excited that supporters and partners are enabling us to act quickly now that these projects are moving forward.”
With the Ruby Creek property now protected, Vital Ground will steward the acres to maintain their many benefits for wildlife while exploring partnership opportunities to further restore and enhance the site’s conservation values.
Support for the Ruby Creek Project came from The Slavik Family Foundation and numerous individual contributors.