In Montana, grizzly bear populations have expanded in both number and in distribution along both sides of the Continental Divide and in the Greater Yellowstone area. In many instances, grizzly bears are expanding into areas they haven’t been in more than a century.
With this expansion comes an increased focus by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to help people and communities stay safe and avoid conflicts. Across Montana’s bear country, FWP staff are working hard to respond to conflicts, provide tools to landowners and communities to prevent conflicts, and to educate people on how to stay safe.
As part of that effort, FWP unveiled a new Grizzly Bear Conflict Dashboard as a resource for information on where FWP staff are helping landowners and communities with conflicts and the types of conflicts people are experiencing.
“Managing grizzly bear conflicts continues to be a priority for our staff and the workload is increasing every year,” said FWP Director Christy Clark. “This dashboard will help inform the public about just what kinds of conflicts Montanans are dealing with and where they’re happening.”
Public interest in FWP’s grizzly bear management remains high. To meet this interest and to increase public awareness, FWP released a Grizzly Bear Mortality dashboard last year. FWP is working on a relocation dashboard as well, which will be released later this summer and show grizzly and black bear relocation information. Until then, the relocation information can be found on the FWP website.
Conflict information on the dashboard is updated regularly, but not until after the conclusion of a conflict. This could take several days depending on what the conflict is and what response is taken. The dashboard displays conflict data from starting in mid-June. Conflict information prior to that will be entered by FWP staff as time allows.
Grizzly bears remain federally protected in the Lower 48 under the Endangered Species Act. This protection remains despite populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) growing well past recovery goals. Montana, Idaho and Wyoming petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to delist grizzly bears.
For more information on grizzly bear management, FWP has many web-based resources for communities, landowners and recreationists. A link to the Grizzly Bear Conflict Dashboard can be found on the grizzly bear management webpage.
If you are dealing with grizzly bear conflicts, please reach out to one of FWP bear management specialists. Their contact information can be found through the FWP website.
Source: Montana FWP
Photo: Pixabay
