Public Comments Sought on Statewide Grizzly Bear Plan
This Post has been updated to reflect a 30-day extension for the public comment period.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) released its first draft of the long-awaited statewide grizzly bear management plan earlier this month. If adopted, the plan will serve as the primary management plan for grizzly bear populations in Montana that are delisted from the Endangered Species Act. The draft plan will replace two separate existing plans, one for the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly bear population and one for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear population. The draft statewide plan includes parts of those existing plans, federal conservation strategies, input from the Grizzly Bear Advisory Council, on which current Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance board member Anne Schuschke served, and other sources.
Getting this plan right is vital to delisting grizzly bears as well as to ensuring sustainable, healthy grizzly bear populations in the Crown of the Continent ecosystem and elsewhere in Montana once the state assumes management.
Public Comment Period Extended.
On Friday, Dec. 16th, Montana FWP agreed to extend the public comment period from an original 30-days to 60 days. The extension was offered in response to mounting public pressure, including from Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance members, supporters, and partner organizations, that 30-days was insufficient time to review this vital plan and provide thoughtful feedback, especially over the holidays.
Public comments are now due Feb. 4th.
Thank you to everyone who reached out to Montana FWP and requested the extension. Your voice mattered and together our voices made a difference!
At this time, no additional public meetings are scheduled. The only meeting occurred on Thursday, Dec. 15 via Zoom. A recording has not yet been made available.
To learn more or submit comments:
To review the draft plan, EIS, supporting documents, or to comment online, please go to https://fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/public-comment-opportunities/grizzly-bear-management-plan.
To comment by mail, send comments to Wildlife Division, Grizzly Bear Plan and EIS, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620.
Comments can also be emailed to  fwpwld@mt.gov.
Our Initial Impression
Our team, including retired grizzly bear biologists and wildlife policy experts, is still reviewing the voluminous plan, which runs to over 400 pages between the plan and the supporting Environmental Impact Statement. Our initial impression is the plan is fairly milquetoast.
In particular, we have concerns how connectivity will be facilitated and maintained between populations under this plan, connectivity necessary to ensure grizzly bears long-term genetic health and diversity. The plan appears to restrict where grizzly bears can live in the future in Montana to currently occupied areas for the most part, rather than allowing for continued range expansion into currently unoccupied suitable habitat, such as the Missouri River Breaks or Charlie M. Russell Wildlife Refuge. Finally, we have concerns about how FWP will handle conflicts with bears outside of current recovery zones as well as how the plan may facilitate grizzly bear hunting seasons, especially on the edge of Glacier or Yellowstone National Parks.
We will provide more detailed suggestions on constructive comments you can offer once we have finished our review.