April 1999

Bioregion Spotlight: Grizzly Bears

We began our new Bioregion Spotlights last month with a look at the bull trout, one of the two species represented in AWR's logo. This month we'll visit the other half of the logo, the grizzly bear. The Bulls and Bears theme was chosen for our logo because these two animals are key indicator species in the Wild Rockies... their continued presence indicates healthy wildland ecosystems.

George Armstrong Custer sets the tone for the next hundred years of human-grizzly relations, 1874. Photo: Library of Congress

A BRIEF HISTORY
As many as 100,000 grizzlies once roamed the lower 48 states, but the arrival of European settlers, habitat destruction, extensive shooting, poisoning, and trapping campaigns reduced grizzly populations to 1% of their original range here. Less than 800 grizzlies exist today in the American Northern Rockies, mainly in and around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and the Bob Marshall wilderness complex.

SALVATION THROUGH SCIENCE?
Through the science of conservation biology, we know that small, isolated populations of species are likely to go extinct. To save the grizzly bear in the Wild Rockies, natural habitat must be protected, restored, and linked with other wild areas. An essential component of this effort is the protection of biological migration corridors which connect isolated grizzly populations, creating a healthy metapopulation (a collection of populations).

Together, the linked populations can be genetically viable over the long-term, ensuring the continued survival of the great bear. Left isolated, grizzly populations, including the Yellowstone grizzlies, will eventually die out. Grizzlies are a sensitive indicator of ecosystem health; if grizzly bear populations are protected, hundreds of species with lesser needs will be protected as well.

In the Northern Rockies, there are three large grizzly bear recovery areas: the Yellowstone, Salmon-Selway and Glacier/Bob Marshall ecosystems. In order to provide viable habitat for grizzlies, these pieces must be linked together with a system of biological corridors. Currently, the Salmon-Selway ecosystem of central Idaho is being recommended for grizzly reintroduction. If the Continental Divide corridor is protected, bears in central Idaho will have the opportunity to genetically intermix with Yellowstone grizzlies, a function that would insure the health and welfare of grizzlies.

AWR AND THE GREAT BEAR
Ensuring survival of the grizzly in the Northern Rockies is a major goal of Alliance for the Wild Rockies. Key to AWR's grizzly campaign is the "Conservation Biology Alternative (CBA)" to the government's grizzly reintroduction proposal for the Salmon-Selway Ecosystem. Their preferred "ROOTS" alternative would give the representatives of the timber industry and political appointees life-and-death control over individual bears, while protecting no new grizzly habitat. We think the CBA offers a bit more to the great bear.

Over the next month we post materials outlining the many ways AWR is working for the griz, so keep checking back throughout April, 1999.

 

Each month our Bioregion Spotlight focuses on a unique area or species of the Wild Rockies.

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Alliance for the Wild Rockies
PO Box 8731 • Missoula, Montana • 59807
Phone: 406-721-5420 • Fax: 406-721-9917
E-mail: awr@wildrockies.org

Content Copyright 1999 Alliance for the Wild Rockies, unless otherwise noted.

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