Working
groups begin to consider recommendations
By Jessianne Castle EBS ENVIRONMENTAL & OUTDOORS EDITOR
LIBBY – Last
summer, a woman living by a trail that meanders along the Tobacco River was
startled by a scream. Afraid someone had been mauled by a bear, she called the
police in nearby Eureka.
“Everybody’s
worried [that] sooner or later somebody’s gonna get grabbed,” said State Sen.
Mike Cuffe (R) as he described the incident. The response team included
sheriff’s deputies, a Montana Highway Patrol trooper, U.S. Border Patrol, an
agent with the U.S. Forest Service, and a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks game
warden.
What they found
was concerning, but not in the way they expected: A black bear cub and a
grizzly cub were in separate trees as their mothers prowled below.
“The two
sows were squaring off and swiping at each other, and it was the two cubs that
were screaming and crying,” Cuffe said, speaking in Libby during the fifth
meeting of Gov. Steve Bullock’s Grizzly Bear Advisory Council. During the Feb.
26-27 meeting, the 18-member citizen panel heard concerns from the greater
Libby community.
“I believe
there’s room for bears, I believe there’s room for humans, and we just need to
find a way to coexist,” said Yaak Valley resident Ashely South during a public
comment session. “Everything that is connected to bears is connected to this
landscape and connected to the people within it. We can work together, and we
can find ways to have preventative actions with bears. We want these recovery
zones to be recovered.”
Conflict
prevention and human safety are two of the five objectives Bullock tasked the
council to address during its eight meetings, which began in October 2019 and will
conclude this July. In August, the panel will submit recommendations to the governor
and FWP on how the public would like the state of Montana to respond to and
manage grizzly bears. The other objectives Bullock asked the council to address
are ensuring a healthy, sustainable grizzly population; improving conflict
response; and improving intergovernmental, interagency and tribal coordination.
Bullock selected the council members to represent the public from a pool of
more than 150 applicants and they come from communities scattered about western
Montana and as far east as Big Timber.
It’s
admittedly a daunting task, and council members have expressed concern about
how quickly the August deadline will come. So far, the council has heard from
experts on bear biology, land conservation efforts, and conflict prevention,
among other topics.
During the
Libby meeting, the council discussed how state and federal budgets relate to bears,
and how the funding picture could change if the Yellowstone population is removed
from the Endangered Species List. They also heard from Wayne Kaseworm of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and FWP bear manager Kim Annis on connectivity
challenges in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem. Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation
Director Rachel VandeVoort presented about the state’s recreation industry.
VandeVoort
is working on programming that will promote recreation and natural resource
education in public school curriculums, as well as update a 1999 inventory compiling
research about how recreation impacts wildlife in the Rockies.
Since the council’s
January meeting in Polson, small working groups have been meeting via conference
call to discuss emerging ideas, challenges, opportunities and solutions. The
working groups met in person on the second day of the meeting to brainstorm
initial recommendations. These brainstorming sessions covered more than 80
ideas the council developed in January. Facilitator Heather Stokes with the
University of Montana said these ideas will continue to develop and new ones
may be added as the council continues to hear from experts and Montana
communities during the March meetings in Browning and Choteau, the May meeting
in Red Lodge, and the July meeting in Dillon.
Among the
council’s initial ideas are finding ways to incentivize large-acre landowners
that provide habitat to grizzly bears but carry the burden of living and
working near bears; finding creative solutions for funding deficits; and
improving conflict prevention efforts on private and public land.
“We’ve got
to educate people about the bear, about bear habitat, how to live with them and
also where they are,” said council member Greg Schock, a retired dairy farmer
from St. Ignatius. “A lot of people don’t realize bears have been in their
backyard for a long time until they have a conflict.”
A particular
challenge the council is grappling with is how to promote bear-smart thinking
in communities where bears are starting to expand, and how to educate those who
live where bears already are.
“You can do
everything possible to [secure attractants] on your property, but if your
neighbor doesn’t do it, then the bear’s still going to come to your house
looking for food,” council member Michele Dietrich of Hamilton said. “How do we
support communities to start conversations about finding a way to become bear
wise? Education is a huge part of that, and the funding is a huge part of
that.”
The council
closed its February meeting with plans to continue talking as smaller working
groups, and report back in March. The council is accepting and reading
individual comments online, as well as hearing public input during meetings.
The next Grizzly Bear Advisory Council meetings are scheduled for March 18 in Browning and March 19-20 in Choteau. Visit fwp.mt.gov/fishAndWildlife/management/grizzlyBear/gbac.html for more information about the Governor’s Grizzly Bear Advisor Council, to view meeting minutes and to submit individual comments.
