Two out the of the six grizzly bear recovery zones in the U.S. are being considered for delisting – Montana’s Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which encompasses part of Wyoming and a sliver of Montana.
The other four recovery zones are still very much in need of protection; they include the Bitterroot and Selkirk ecosystems in Idaho, the Cabinet Mountains in Northwest Montana, and the North Cascades in Washington state.
Recovery zones were established in 1975 when grizzlies were put on the Endangered Species List in response to a shocking population decrease. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), persecution and habitat depletion caused the grizzly population to drop from approximately 50,000 in 1800 to 250 by 1940. Placing grizzly bears on the Endangered Species List meant implementing habitat protection and mortality control to ensure that populations wouldn’t decline further.
According to data provided by federal and state biologists, since 1940, the U.S. population has grown 700 percent to 1,850 grizzly bears in the lower 48 states. Ninety-five percent live in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems. Recovery has been so successful that the ecosystems are nearing carrying capacity.
An ecosystem is reaching its carrying capacity when population growth levels out because of inner-species conflict.
Grizzlies aren’t just filling the habitat from 1975 – they are filling a habitat that has doubled since then. Grizzly bear range in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has increased from 23,800 square kilometers in 1981 to 53,000 in 2010. The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem has shown similar growth; its range has increased from 23,136 square kilometers in 1981 to 47,136 in 2012.
In fact, more grizzlies are migrating to the prairie today than in the last 100 years. Since 2009, three female grizzlies have denned and produced cubs on the Montana prairie, according to data recorded by Dan Carney, a wildlife biologist for Blackfeet Fish and Game. One of the dens was 40 kilometers from the mountains.
The objective of the Endangered Species Act is to get the listed species to a point at which protection under the act is no longer needed. In that regard, delisting illustrates an extreme conservation success. From a management standpoint, delisting means that regulation will be passed down from the federal level to the state level. However, before delisting can happen, a draft conservation strategy must be created and agreed upon by all agencies.
A common misconception with delisting is that grizzlies will no longer be protected. Habitat protection and mortality limits will remain in place. To ensure that grizzly populations are stable and secure, a science team run by the U.S. Geological Survey sets a sustainable mortality limit based on the percentage of adult males, adult females, and cubs that can die while still maintaining a stable population. They make an annual population estimate based on surveys and allocate those numbers across states based on the geographic amount in each state and ecosystem.
State wildlife agencies have to operate within these mortality limits. According to Servheen, if state agencies don’t adhere, the federal government can “emergency relist” the species in two weeks.
If delisting occurs, and it likely will, Vital Ground will retain its role of protecting crucial habitat and linkage zones for grizzly bears. After all, the number of grizzlies on the U.S. side of the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains are at dangerous lows and number less than 50 bears each, according to the FWS. Without protection, these bear populations are threatened to decline further due to isolation, fractured habitat, and human activity.
In Washington’s North Cascades, grizzlies are believed to be absent except for an occasional wanderer from Canada, and the grizzly bear population has vanished from Idaho’s Bitterroot Ecosystem.
There will always be a need to protect grizzly bear habitat, delisted or not; as an umbrella species, grizzly habitat represents habitat for all species. That’s the principle that The Vital Ground Foundation was created from and what it is guided by today.
“Where the Grizzly can walk, the earth is healthy and whole.”