grizzly bears

Despite the government shutdown, U.S. Forest Service supervisors last week signed a new management plan for the Flathead National Forest, along with amendments that standardize grizzly bear management for the Lolo, Kootenai and Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forests.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday filed notice to appeal restored Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears granted by a federal judge in Missoula in September.

MTPR's Nick Mott reports on the government’s challenge to a decision that blocked the first hunts of the animal in decades.

Wildlife managers on the Flathead Reservation are seeking information on two grizzly bear shootings in October, and offering a reward for it. The two female bears were found in mid-October. A federal investigation is ongoing.

Two Montana conservation groups purchased a plot of land that could help establish safe passage for grizzly bears in a dangerous but crucial corridor for the spread of the species in Western Montana.

Vital Ground Foundation and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative acquired 52 acres that could allow grizzlies and other wildlife to cross from the Ninemile area west of Missoula into the Bitterroot mountains.

Grizzly bears in and around Montana are moving faster than the people tasked with managing them. That’s the takeaway from the year-end update from the group of federal and state wildlife experts who met this week in Missoula.

About 20 members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, an organization in charge of grizzly bear management and recovery, crowded around a conference table, discussing the six ecosystems designated as grizzly bear habitat south of Canada.