When bears wake up in Greater Yellowstone, we know spring is on its way. This month, GYC celebrated the return of bears with a project to keep bears alive and people safe in Montana and hosted a film screening about grizzly bears in Idaho. We also have an upcoming event in Bozeman on May 2 that we hope you’ll attend.

Buckle up! It’s going to be a big year for GYC and the lands, waters, and wildlife of Greater Yellowstone.

Join us for a journey down memory lane and let’s celebrate all we did together for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

During the summer of 2023, GYC assisted with a study using trail cameras to better understand grizzly bear and livestock interactions in the Gravelly Range of southwest Montana. After snapping images for almost five months, the trail cameras were collected in October and GYC staff discovered the incredible range of wildlife that call these mountains home.

Deep in the rugged Gravelly Range, GYC, as part of the Ruby Valley Strategic Alliance, is working to keep bears wild, people safe, and livelihoods intact by studying grizzly bear presence using camera traps on grazing allotments. Hear from our new Montana Conservation Coordinator Sally Schrank about her mountainous, buggy, and wildflower-filled field days in this beautiful and dynamic landscape.

Learn more about our grizzly bear conflict prevention projects in Wyoming for 2023.

GYC opposes SB 295 as written, which is a bad grizzly bear bill in the 2023 Montana State Legislature.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services announced the beginning of a 12-month status review of the health and viability of grizzly bear populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. The review will contribute to the agency’s eventual determination of whether or not the populations warrant removal from the Endangered Species Act’s list of endangered and threatened wildlife. 

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is holding a public comment period on their draft grizzly bear management plan, which will guide how grizzlies are managed in the state.

GYC has partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to review all five national forests surrounding Yellowstone National Park with the goal of identifying and subsequently decommissioning illegal, unnecessary, or unsuccessfully closed roads and restoring the roadbeds back to a natural state. The roads are prioritized for restoration according to their potential to benefit grizzlies and other wildlife.

GYC is committed to reducing human-bear conflicts in the populated areas of Greater Yellowstone.

GYC’s Darcie Warden explores drone monitoring as a creative tool to help ranchers coexist on the landscape with grizzly bears.