Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 16 e passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 represented a dramatic shift in public attitudes towards wildlife to one based more on reverence and respect. ere is little doubt that protections offered by the ESA since 1975 rescued grizzlies from extinction. Under the ESA, sport hunting of grizzly bears was banned. Yellowstone Park cleaned up its management of garbage, which meant that fewer bears got hooked on human foods and were subsequently killed. Habitat was protected and restored on degraded National Forest lands outside the Park. Still, progress towards recovery has been slow. Yellowstone's cur- rent population of roughly 640 to 740 grizzly bears is about double its size during the 1970s. While this represents progress, these numbers are still far fewer than the 2000+ widely considered by experts to be necessary for long-term viability. To achieve this goal, Yellowstone's currently isolated grizzlies would need to be recon- nected with bear populations to the north and west. is would involve expanding measures to coexist with grizzlies. Fortunately, we have learned a lot over the years about what works to keep bears alive and humans safe. Carrying bear pepper spray, keeping clean camps, and sound livestock husbandry practices are all proven, commonsense measures. For hunters, prompt removal of dead game from the woods can reduce hazardous confrontations with grizzlies. Electric fence has proven to be effective in deterring grizzlies from beehives and calving pastures. And, livestock guard- ian dogs can reduce depredations, especially of domestic sheep. Significant work is being done to promote coexistence practices all along the Continental Divide between the Yellowstone and Glacier ecosystems. AN UNRAVELING ECOSYSTEM e imperative for connectivity is amplified by the fact that Yellowstone's ecosystem is unravelling for grizzly bears. Although Yellowstone grizzlies eat over 200 different foods, paradoxically, they have historically depended on just four foods for most of their energy and nutrients: seeds from whitebark pine, meat from elk and bison, army cutworm moths, and cutthroat trout. Two of these critical foods were essentially wiped out between 1995 and the mid-2000s. Trout in Yellowstone Lake have been victims of drought, climate warming, and predation by a non-native fish. Mature cone-producing whitebark pine have been clobbered by the spread of a non-native fungal disease called blister rust and by an unprecedented climate-driven outbreak of bark beetles. at leaves only two of these historically critical bear foods more-or-less intact: army cutworm moths and meat from large herbivores. Yet even these foods are diminished or severely threat- ened. Most elk populations have declined dramatically from highs reached during the 1990s and early 2000s, and moths are imperiled by the projected disappearance of their alpine haunts from climate warming during the next 50 to 100 years. Meanwhile, bears have been compensating for loss of pine seeds and trout by eating more meat, especially from cows and the remains of hunter-killed elk. is behavior has precipitated sky- rocketing conflicts with livestock operators and hunters. Mortality rates have consequently reached unsustainable levels. Experts fear the population may have reached a tipping point coming at a time when the government is contemplating removing federal protec- tions for Yellowstone's grizzlies. (See sidebar on page 15). As John Muir famously wrote: you can't "…pick out anything by itself [without finding] it hitched to everything else in the Universe." Watch grizzlies with cubs: www.distinctlymontana.com/grizzlycubs172 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL

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