Tag Archives: United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Pryor Mountains provide possible habitat

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Pryor Mountains provide possible habitat.

As grizzly bear numbers climb, the animals are expanding to the fringes of available habitat from strongholds like Yellowstone National Park, where this one was photographed. Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/pryor-mountains-provide-possible-habitat/article_51d5151b-4619-5a8a-adf2-c36ed373712b.html#ixzz1gRZMiMNg

As grizzly bear numbers climb, the animals are expanding to the fringes of available habitat from strongholds like Yellowstone National Park, where this one was photographed. Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/pryor-mountains-provide-possible-habitat/article_51d5151b-4619-5a8a-adf2-c36ed373712b.html#ixzz1gRZMiMNg

Reports of grizzly bears have increased along the expansive and rugged Beartooth Front in the past few years, possibly a side effect of a healthy grizzly population pushing outward from the protected confines of Yellowstone National Park.

So are there more bears, or more people exploring grizzly country and therefore more bear sightings?

“It’s hard to say if there are more people out, or if (grizzly bears) are expanding their range,” said Barb Pitman, wildlife biologist with the Beartooth Ranger District in Red Lodge. “We haven’t really explored why sightings are up.”

But Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said grizzly bear sightings are increasing in the region simply because there are more bears. At last count, an estimated 600 grizzlies were living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“They’re just pushing out in all directions,” he said.

Unconfirmed sighting

Traditionally, the grizzly bears that disperse farthest are subadult males — somewhat similar in temperament and mindset to human teenage boys.

“They’re just wandering around checking things out,” Servheen said.

So it’s not inconceivable that the bear that Jerry Kruschensky saw bolt across the road in the Pryor Mountains in May was a young male grizzly.

“He came right out of the bottom, right out of the timber. He was running and then, boom, he was back in the timber,” Kruschensky said.

It was only a quick glimpse, but Kruschensky said he has been around bears his whole life, and this one had a distinct hump rising above its front shoulders — a grizzly’s hump.

Kruschensky never reported his possible grizzly bear sighting to the Forest Service or Fish, Wildlife and Parks for follow-up and confirmation. That’s not unusual.

“When people see something, they don’t always think to call us,” Pitman said.

Good habitat

Kruschensky was in the Pryors this summer working on a project to rebuild the Crooked Creek Road. The Pryors are known to be good black bear habitat, with deep canyons pocked with caves and thick with brush. Wild berries and plums — favorite bruin fare — are abundant.

But the relatively small mountain range is fairly isolated geographically. To the south of the range is the deep gouge of Bighorn Canyon and its half-mile-high cliffs. In all other directions there is open prairie, farms, ranches, roads, a state highway and scattered creek drainages.

Yet the Pryors are only about 30 miles east of the Beartooth Front — the area where grizzly bear sightings have been increasing. There’s also the Clarks Fork River that passes within about 15 miles of the Pryors. Such riparian habitat is known to be a favorite travel corridor for bears — providing cover, food and water. What’s more, the Clarks Fork River’s headwaters are nestled within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem — prime grizzly bear habitat.

It’s possible

Servheen said it’s not impossible that a grizzly bear might travel far enough eastward from the Beartooths to rediscover the Pryors.

“I’m not saying it will never happen,” he said. “Historically, they were in much of Eastern Montana.”

Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife biologist Shawn Stewart agreed, but noted that it’s a pretty long trek.

But in the last two years, a few bold grizzly bears have wandered twice that far after emerging from the Rocky Mountain Front in northwestern Montana. Long treks, although unusual, are not unheard of. This summer, FWP officials recounted the tale of a 4-year-old female grizzly that had swum up to 7 miles while vigorously exploring Flathead Lake and the surrounding environs, including an island. Over the course of about 14 months, the bear traveled 1,200 miles, according to data collected by satellite from its GPS collar.

“We’re certainly getting bears using that kind of (Pryor’s) environment,” Stewart said. “It’s not impossible that grizzly bears could get there, but it’s not going to happen rapidly.”

“Bar tales” that federal or state officials are dumping problem bears, including grizzlies, in the Pryor Mountains are just that — tall tales, Servheen said.

“Those stories are B.S.,” he said. “We’re not going to put bears in areas completely outside their range.”

Should a grizzly wander into the Pryor Mountains, though, officials would leave the animal alone as long as it didn’t cause any problems, Servheen said.

Scary, don’t think I will be going up there, camping in a tent, anymore.  I go a few times each summer.  :/

Standing map in the Pryor Mountains

Standing map in the Pryor Mountains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bear Canyon, in the Pryor Mountains

Bear Canyon, in the Pryor Mountains

Now this picture is of an area called, “Bear Canyon” in the Pryor Mountains.  I was visiting there this summer, just driving around taking pictures.  The base of the Pryor Mountains is about 8 miles from my house.  While I was at Bear Canyon I called my sister to let her know I would be leaving.  (Always a good idea when out alone) I remember making the remark that I didn’t think I should go in this area alone.  :/  To think, I was worried about black bear, not GRIZZLY.  Sheesh.  Maybe sometimes ignorance IS bliss??

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Admin moves to clarify endangered species listings

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Admin moves to clarify endangered species listings.

The Obama administration proposed a new rule Friday that would end a practice in which some endangered species were classified differently in neighboring states.

The new policy would clarify that a plant or animal could be listed as threatened or endangered if threats occur in a “significant portion of its range,” even if the threat crosses state lines and does not apply in the species’ entire range.

The draft rule would replace a Bush-era policy that allowed animals such as the gray wolf and Preble’s meadow jumping mouse to be classified differently in neighboring states. The 2007 policy was withdrawn last spring after two federal courts rejected it.

In the case of gray wolves, the government in 2009 sought to lift protections for the predators in Idaho and Montana but leave them in place in Wyoming, where a state law allowed the predators to be shot on sight in most of the state. That policy was considered too harsh to ensure the species’ long-term survival.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy later reinstated protections across the region, saying the agency could not declare wolves recovered in two states when part of the same population remained imperiled in Wyoming.

Congress intervened in the dispute this spring to again remove protections in Idaho and Montana. The federal government has since offered a new proposal, still pending, to take the wolves off the endangered list in Wyoming.

Molloy, in rejecting the Bush rule, said it was “at its heart a political solution that does not comply with the ESA,” referring to the Endangered Species Act.

The split-state rule might have been “a pragmatic solution to a difficult biological issue,” Molly wrote in August 2010, but “it is not a legal one.”

The new rule would help clarify which species are eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act and allow officials to act sooner to conserve declining species, said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. The rule applies to the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, which administer the endangered species law.

“This proposed interpretation will provide consistency and clarity for the services and our partners, while making more effective use of our resources and improving our ability to protect and recover species before they are on the brink of extinction,” Ashe said.

Noah Greenwald, with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has frequently clashed with the government over species listings, called the new proposal a “recipe for extinction,” noting that it retains parts of the Bush-era policy that block protections for some species that have lost large parts of their historic range.

One such species is the plains bison, which has seen its population dwindle drastically since the country was settled but remains viable in a handful of areas, including Yellowstone National Park. The Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected proposals to require protections for those approximately 20,000 wild bison.

“We have no memory of the past, so all of a sudden a species is doing fine. It’s lost 99 percent of its range like the bison, but we just put on the blinders to all that,” Greenwald said.

But Vanderbilt University Law School professor J.B. Ruhl said the agency’s approach was necessary to give a legal definition to the biological question of what it means to be endangered. A broader historical approach could make the Endangered Species Act unworkable by adding new species or retaining protections even if they were not at risk of extinction, Ruhl said.

Ruhl said he did not see any political motivation for dropping the Bush-era policy that allowed animals to be classified along state boundaries. Rather, he said the move was compelled by court rulings that had rejected the Bush policy, leading to its withdrawal by federal officials in May.

Classifying the same animal differently in neighboring states “never struck me as something you could get out of a reasonable interpretation” of the Endangered Species Act, Ruhl said.

An expert on the Endangered Species Act from the University of Idaho said the proposal probably faces legal challenges from both conservationists and industry groups, such as homebuilders’ associations opposed to expanding protections for threatened plants or animals.

“They are affording more protection than they arguably would have to,” said Dale Goble, a professor at the University of Idaho’s College of Law. “That’s going to be the lightning rod for the regulated industry.”

Goble said the policy change was needed to fill in gaps left by Congress when it approved the Endangered Species Act almost 40 years ago. Those gaps have left the law open to different interpretations that vary according to political landscape of the day, he said.

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Six grizzlies caught, two put down – Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana

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Six grizzlies caught, two put down – Daily Inter Lake: Local/Montana.

Six grizzlies caught, two put down - Daily Inter Lake: Local/MontanaSix grizzly bears have been removed from the Northern Continental Divide population in two separate trapping efforts by state officials over the last 10 days east of Kalispell.

Two adult females were put down and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking for a zoo to take four cubs that were captured.

The first family group involved a 5- or 6-year-old unmarked female with two cubs of the year.

Attempts at capturing the bears had been under way for about two months in response to the bears breaking into chicken coops, barns, sheds and garages, as well as killing pigs on properties east of Montana 206 and north of Lake Blaine.

They were captured on Nov. 16 and 17, and the decision was made in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove them from the wild.

The second family group involved an 18-year-old female and two cubs of the year that also were causing trouble in the Lake Blaine area. Biologists were very familiar with the sow, since she been captured and relocated nine times since she was first trapped 11 years ago north of Lake Blaine.

In the past, most of her conflicts were minor and involved feeding on apples near homes.

This fall, she began feeding on pig feed and ended up killing a pig. The family group was captured on Nov. 21 near Elk Park Road, and the decision was made to remove the bears from the wild.

The four cubs have been transported to the state Wildlife Center in Helena and efforts are under way to place them in zoos.

“We are entering a new era in grizzly bear management,” said Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “With a functionally recovered population of grizzly bears, we will continue to experience increased conflicts between bears and humans.”

As the Northern Continental Ecosystem population continues to grow, the state “can be more aggressive in removing those females and males that continue to conflict with humans,” Williams added.

Rick Mace, a biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks who has led a grizzly population trend study, said the North Continental Divide population now has about 1,000 bears and his research indicates the population is growing about 2 to 3 percent annually.

“Although the recent removals of adult females with cubs are regrettable, these mortalities are well within sustainable mortality limits,” Mace said.

Tim Manley, a state grizzly bear management specialist, said there have been a record 44 captures of grizzlies for management reasons during the 2011 field season. Since 1993, there has been an average of 17 management captures a year.

This year’s captures involved 28 individual bears, some of which were trapped on multiple occasions, and 11 bears were removed from the population.

That included six bears that were killed, a subadult male that was sent to the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center near Yellowstone National Park and the four cubs that may be placed in zoos. The remaining 17 bears are still in the wild and most of them are radio-collared and being monitored.

In other grizzly bear news, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is investigating a case of a grizzly bear being shot north of Libby recently.

And Manley conducted a monitoring flight Monday, finding that out of 12 grizzlies that were located, six were in their dens while three were on deer or elk carcasses or on gut piles left by hunters.

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