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Grizzly Bear Managers To Vote On NCDE Conservation Strategy

Bear Management Units (BMUs) in the NCDE Primary Conservation Area. BMU subunits are outlined in light gray.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Bear Management Units (BMUs) in the NCDE Primary Conservation Area. BMU subunits are outlined in light gray.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee is getting together this week for their bi-annual meeting about grizzly bear management in northwest Montana.

Members will vote on a conservation strategy that outlines how federal, tribal and state managers can maintain a recovered, genetically diverse population in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. The two-day meeting begins Tuesday in Polson.

The 1,000 or so grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem are still protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to consider their removal later this year.

The Committee’s Conservation Strategy is intended to guide management with or without federal protections.

The Fish and Wildlife Service removed about 700 Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem last year in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho from the Endangered Species List.

Wyoming officials last month voted to hunt up to 22 bears this fall. Idaho has approved a hunt for one male grizzly in the fall.  Montana Wildlife officials have voted not to hold a grizzly hunt this year. 

See the IGBC meeting agenda here: http://igbconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/180619_Exec-Mtg_Agenda_DRAFT-1.pdf

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