Greater Yellowstone Coalition: Giving the wilderness a voice

Benjamin Polley EBS CONTRIBUTOR

Editor’s note: In the coming weeks, Explore Big Sky will highlight three local nonprofits devoted to protecting our local lands and waterways who have partnered with our publisher, Outlaw Partners on this summer’s Wildlands Festival. Meet the second in the series, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, as well as Gallatin Valley Land Trust.

Since 1983, Greater Yellowstone Coalition has not just championed the cause of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem but also carved out a unique role as its voice. GYC, in collaboration with people and communities, is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the 22-million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem through water, land and wildlife conservation campaigns and projects.

With headquarters in Bozeman and offices in Idaho, Wyoming, and the Wind River Indian Reservation, the company’s team of passionate conservationists, seasoned policy analysts, and esteemed biologists works on issues like grizzly bear and bison management, wildlife highway crossings, climate resilience, protecting public lands, and supporting Indigenous-led conservation priorities.

The history of GYC

Two significant catalysts helping to shape this organization were a grizzly bear population on the brink of extinction and an understanding that if we care about Yellowstone, we must care about what happens beyond its borders. In other words, to protect a park, we must preserve an ecosystem. 

In 1975, grizzlies living in the lower 48 states were listed as Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act. Today, thanks to the strategic conservation practices and solid interagency coordination championed by GYC, roughly 1,000 grizzly bears roam Greater Yellowstone. Just 40 years ago, only approximately 130 bears lived in the region. The bruins have expanded their range and have a stable population.

However, challenges remain, with at least 50-100 grizzlies dying annually across the Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and beyond, the vast majority of which are due to conflicts with humans. Despite these challenges, the progress we’ve made is a beacon of hope, showing what can be achieved when we come together for a common cause.

Who’s behind it all

GYC has 35 permanent staff members dispersed across the region into six offices, including Driggs, Idaho, and Cody, Jackson, Lander, and Fort Washakie, Wyoming, on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Their board comprises 17 members from communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and beyond. GYC is fortunate to have a national council of 28 individuals across the U.S.

The bedrock of GYE is its continual investment of more than $5 million annually back into the ecosystem’s communities through various campaigns, partnerships, and conservation projects. Some examples of community-focused projects include placing bear-proof infrastructure in towns and campgrounds, grizzly bear safety and conflict reduction programs, working with states and communities and partnerships with tribes that support their conservation priorities, rights and ways of life.

GYC’s strong partnerships

“Coalition is our name, and the lasting conservation outcomes we have achieved demonstrate the value of working in coalitions and partnerships. Virtually every program or project we invest in occurs alongside our partners,” said Scott Christensen, executive director of GYC. “The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s 22 million acres are diverse and vast and require partnering with other nonprofit organizations, tribal governments, state, federal and local governments, and the people who live on the landscape.”

Spotlight projects

“Stopping the proposed New World Gold Mine near Cooke City in the mid-1990s helped put GYC on the map and propel the organization toward many other important conservation wins,” Christensen said. “Some of those include playing a lead role in supporting the reintroduction of gray wolves and the remarkable comeback of grizzlies, opening up habitat for bison west and north of Yellowstone, working with Native American tribes and the park to restore bison to tribal lands across North America, passing bills in congress to protect the Snake River, Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone, and the East Rosebud Creek, and just last year buying out a proposed gold mine that was slated to be developed right on the boundary of Yellowstone near Gardiner.”

Current and continuing threats

GYE faces myriad threats related to increasing land development and visitation, a changing climate that puts pressure on the habitat for iconic fish and wildlife, and a diverse political climate that makes it harder to accomplish bipartisan conservation solutions.

Projects in progress

This summer, GYC will continue supporting the construction of wildlife crossings throughout Greater Yellowstone to alleviate vehicle-wildlife collisions. Studies show that these crossings reduce vehicle collisions by up to 90 percent and also help preserve wildlife migrations and movement across the ecosystem. Colleagues at all six of their offices across the GYE are immersed in projects, from wildlife crossings to fence removal and modification, to help wildlife freely move across the landscape, striving to create safe passages. 

They are also helping to alleviate the pressures and challenges of increasing recreational pressures, human development and the human impacts of climate change by revising the Bridger-Teton National Forest Management Plan. This plan examines how the forest will be managed in the foreseeable future. GYC is collaborating with a large coalition of partners to ensure the plan protects wild lands, clean and cold rivers and wildlife habitats for migration corridors while promoting climate resiliency. 

GYC is also helping to shape the new Montana gray wolf management plan and paying close attention to whether or not grizzlies will be delisted as an endangered species and Yellowstone’s new Bison Management Plan as the park updates it. GYC is also leading the Water and Buffalo Alliance and working closely with the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative to restore 1000 bison across 100,000 acres on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Last but not least, they are fighting the Kilgore Gold Exploration Project, 40 miles west of Yellowstone National Park in eastern Idaho.

GYC will have its work cut out in the coming years, developing and implementing realistic solutions that benefit the GYE’s lands, waters, and wildlife and the people who have built their lives here.

Learn more about the Greater Yellowstone Coalition at greateryellowstone.org.