Wildlife Concerns

Bears

PCEC has taken a number of actions to help protect grizzly and black bears living in this region:

· We facilitated a collaboration between the Forest Service and county to build a bear-proof garbage transfer station in Cooke City, at Yellowstone National Park's northeastern entrance, to prevent further bear mortalities resulting from habituation to human food supplies.

· PCEC organized a well-attended meeting in Cooke City featuring an array of grizzly bear experts, including Kevin Frey (Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and Parks), Kerry Gunther (Yellowstone National Park Bear Specialist), Dan Reinhart (Yellowstone National Park Resource Manager), and Dan Tyers (Gallatin National Forest), who educated attendees about living with bears and explained the benefits of the new bear-proof garbage facility there.

· The Council prevailed in a lawsuit to force the Gallatin National Forest and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to close off-road vehicle trails in core grizzly habitat and limit user-created trails throughout the grizzly bear recovery zone until they have determined whether the machines are affecting bear behavior.