MISSOULA— The Endangered Species Act brought both grizzly bears and wolves back from the brink of extinction in the US

But as politics and human expansion worsen, will the recovery continue, and do we have the will to do so?

These were the questions that two eminent biologists tried to address Wednesday night in a presentation titled “The Future of Grizzlies and Wolves In Montana.”

The recorded wolf howls that greeted the approximately 200 people who entered the Wilma Theater were a signal of what was in store during the talk. Meanwhile, shown on the screen, grizzly bears roamed the forests or shot bison carcasses.

Journalist and moderator Todd Wilkinson first asked how many people have seen a wolf or grizzly bear in the wild. After a large number of people raised their hands, he reminded them that Montana was one of three states in the nation where they could do so.

Even in these three states, the two species are at risk, as he demonstrated the recent death of the famous grizzly bear 399. A vehicle struck and killed the 28-year-old bear south of Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Oct. 22, and the whereabouts of her cub, Spirit, remain unknown.

“It’s a bear that allows us to distill our thoughts about grizzlies, why individual bears matter, and this tremendous power of attention that they have,” Wilkinson said. “We’re going to talk about why grizzly bears and why wolves matter.”

Chris Servheen, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service coordinator, contributed to the decision to spare 399’s life after she was involved in a brief standoff.

It was a good decision, as Servheen said she is mild-mannered and quiet – not the demon species some have made her out to be – and taught the 24 cubs how to safely deal with the problem of humans.

But now, more newcomers are moving into the Northern Rockies, putting more pressure on grizzly bears, filling the habitat with homes and recreating bear habitat in greater numbers.

Servheen showed a time-lapse sequence from 1950 to 2021 of growth in Montana – the red dots representing houses gradually wiped out many areas, especially in western Montana.

Servheen said suburban sprawl and more people recreating outdoors are a growing problem for wildlife, so land development decisions should consider the needs of wildlife.

Wilkinson said Bozeman is growing at a rate of 4 percent to 5 percent, so it will double in size in 18 years. The Bozeman area is projected to be the size of Minneapolis by 2065, Wilkinson said.

“In the Greater Yellowstone area, about a quarter is private land (mainly in the valleys). All these valleys are essential connective tissue for all wildlife. The big elephant in the room is what’s happening in our valleys – how will the animals move between the mountains?” Wilkinson said.

Many new residents don’t know how to coexist with grizzly bears, so they become “more tense” with the bears around them, Wilkinson said.

Buoyed by that and the outdated “anti-predator hysteria” that dominates the thinking of some, Servheen said, Montana politicians have recently passed several regulations that have increased the threat to grizzlies and other wildlife, including dog hunting for black bears and hunting of wolf at night.

Montana FWP

Politicians are also making efforts eliminate the grizzly bearciting the estimated population of about 2,000 grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems as evidence that the species has recovered.

But “recovery is more than a bear count,” Servheen said. Adequate regulatory mechanisms must also be in place to ensure that the species will endure. That is cut.

Before 2020, Servheen advocated delisting grizzlies, but all the anti-predator bills passed by Montana’s governor and Republican legislators changed his mind.

“I am against delisting because biological decisions are now being made by politicians. For 30 years, we have placed great trust in fish and wildlife biologists in all states to make decisions based on scientific facts. “Recently, we’ve started to see state politicians suppress biologists and start making their own biological decisions about how many wolves we should have and new methods of killing them,” Servheen said. “When politicians make biological decisions, bad things happen.”

Biologist Doug Smith has worked for Yellowstone National Park for a quarter of a centuryduring which gray wolves were reintroduced to the area. He was able to study and document previously unknown wolf behavior and demographics in the largely natural setting of Yellowstone Park. He knows how different and similar wolves are to grizzly bears.

While grizzly bears are still protected on one side of the elimination line, wolves crossed over to the other side when they were delisted in 2011. While wolves are protected inside the park, once they cross the park boundary line, they can be killed. And this is happening more and more.

Recent legislative changes have allowed wolves to be killed in ever-increasing ways, while efforts to ban practices such as bounties and hitting, where people take down wolves with motor vehicles, have failed.

When wolves are killed, pack females respond by having more cubs. So wolves can survive an annual mortality rate of up to 30%. While that may seem to weaken the case against more kills, Smith said, the downside is that packs often lose the wisdom and knowledge of their elders, so younger members have more problems with other wolves and animals, so conflict isn’t necessarily reduced. by killing wolves.

MTN News file

Before 2021, two hunting districts in Montana on the park’s northern boundary provided a buffer — Smith called it a “soft boundary” — where only three to four wolves could be killed.

In 2021, the quota increased to 19, which, combined with wolf quotas in Wyoming and Idaho, meant that 20 percent of Yellowstone Park’s wolf population was targeted. This means less than 30% mortality, so some have argued that the population would be fine.

But Smith said he is responsible for protecting and conserving natural systems in the park and that the level of human-caused death is not natural.

“Animals don’t know where the line is, and it’s difficult for an animal to go from full protection to no protection across an invisible line,” Smith said. “That’s why it’s important to solve these things – which we solved. And it is a political change that has done that. We want to change this kind of approach.”

While wolf populations can withstand state mismanagement, grizzly bears cannot, Smith said. Grizzlies have delayed maturation and low productivity – most have only one or two cubs that take two seasons to grow.

“Wolves live life in a hurry. Most wolves die at the age of 5 or 6, although they can live longer. (Grizzly) 399 was 28,” Smith said. “When you make a mistake with an animal that’s very productive, it’s forgiving. When you make a mistake with an animal like (grizzlies), the mistake lasts for years.”

Smith said he did not call for the wolf restoration because it could lead to a backlash that would make the policy even more controversial, with the result that small victories, such as reducing wolf kill quotas around the park, could be lost. But if wolf regulations continue to erode, then wolves should go back on the list, Smith said.

Both Servheen and Smith said a return to science-based wildlife management is needed. The policy should be eliminated, especially when poll after poll shows that mountain people value wildlife.

Servheen said better management is needed to eliminate the grizzly bear, and Smith said it is needed to avoid restocking with the wolf. Wilkinson said county growth plans are needed to better manage human sprawl. They all encouraged people to vote for people who would support science and wildlife.

“These animals don’t need to be demonized – they are native species that need to live here,” Servheen said. “States should be proud to be one of the few places where these animals remain. Instead, some influential politicians see grizzlies and wolves as a burden and an inconvenience. I am not a burden, I am not an inconvenience. They are a liability.”

The presentation was sponsored by the Cinnabar Foundation, Montana Wilderness Foundation, National Parks Conservation Association and Yellowstonian.

Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at [email protected].