FWP releases Bear Relocation Dashboard, the third in a series

Beginning last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks began releasing grizzly bear management “dashboards.” FWP developed the Grizzly Bear Mortality Dashboard last year and the Grizzly Bear Conflict Dashboard earlier this summer. The most recent in the series, the Bear Relocation Dashboard, was posted on July 25.

Links to the entire suite of dashboards, as well as a great deal of additional information on FWP’s bear management efforts can be found on their Grizzly Bear Management and Conservation webpage.

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Good overview of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park’s proposed grizzly bear management plan . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has finalized its plan for managing grizzly bears, described by the agency as among Montana’s most “conservation-reliant” and “conflict-prone” species.

Late last month, FWP Director Dustin Temple formally adopted a 326-page outline for how the state will address conflicts between bears and people, approach an eventual trophy hunt and respond to the state’s growing — and dispersing — grizzly population.

The Statewide Grizzly Bear Management Plan represents the agency’s attempt to thread a narrow needle. With this plan, FWP is striving to reassure federal wildlife managers that it will be a responsible steward of a species that was hunted nearly to extinction in the not-too-distant past while also demonstrating its responsiveness to the concerns of Montanans living with grizzlies — some more willingly than others.

Continue reading . . .

https://www.gravel.org/2024/10/16/montana-unveils-its-plan-for-managing-grizzly-bears/

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Wolf trapping in Montana got curtailed in those areas with grizzly bear populations . . .

A federal judge in Missoula issued an order late Tuesday afternoon that will limit Montana’s wolf trapping season to Jan. 1 to Feb. 15 next year in hunting Regions 1 through 5 and three counties along the north-central border, citing the possibility that threatened grizzly bears get caught in wolf traps or snares.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy’s order granting a preliminary injunction in the case came less than 30 hours after he heard arguments from the plaintiffs – the Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizens Task Force and WildEarth Guardians – and the state over whether he should grant the injunction. The State of Montana, Gov. Greg Gianforte, and Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Lesley Robinson are the named defendants in the suit.

In his order, he sided with the plaintiffs on most of the points raised at Monday’s hourlong hearing, saying the traps could indeed injure a grizzly, that any capture of a grizzly is considered an illegal “take” under the Endangered Species Act, and that limiting the wolf trapping season to those six weeks would also limit the potential for any grizzlies to be caught in traps.

Continue reading . . .

https://www.gravel.org/2023/11/23/court-limits-wolf-trapping-season-over-threat-to-grizzlies/

#grizzlyBearManagement #wolfHunt