Along the journey of coexistence: Grizzlies in the Gravelly Range
On a brisk Tuesday morning in June, just three months into my new role as Montana conservation coordinator with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, I found myself threading bear spray onto my pack and heading into southwest Montana’s Gravelly Range with one goal in mind: think like a bear.
(L-R) GYC’s Montana Conservation Coordinator Sally Schrank, Special Projects Organizer Erin Steva, and Communications Associate London Bernier overlooking the Madison Range. (Photo GYC/London Bernier)
With camera traps, whiteboards, data sheets, and bear spray in tow, my colleagues — Erin Steva, Joe Josephson, and London Bernier — and I set off. Our first stop was a well-known elk calving area, and when we arrived, the wildflowers were in full bloom across the high mountain meadow. It was hard to stay focused on the task with such an incredible scene laid out before us.
There are both grizzly bears and black bears in the Gravelly Range, and there are also cattle grazing on these public lands each summer. Ranchers from the adjacent Ruby Valley have been grazing cattle in the Gravellies for decades, but as grizzly bear populations rebound and expand, the dynamics between livestock and bears are evolving. Ranchers who graze cattle on this landscape want to keep their cows safe from bears and conservationists (and conservation-minded ranchers) want to keep bears safe from getting into trouble. Both of those things require having a better understanding of the interactions between bears and cattle.
GYC has been working for years to ensure that ranchers’ livelihoods remain intact while grizzly bears thrive on this landscape. After all, working lands like ranches provide vital habitat for all kinds of wildlife, so making sure ranches stay viable and continue operating is a key way we work to preserve open lands across Greater Yellowstone.
The field work we planned to conduct on this day was just one small part of our overarching efforts to answer the question, “how can bears and humans coexist in Greater Yellowstone?”
Thinking about big ideas, solving problems, and asking good questions is what interested me in becoming the Montana conservation coordinator for GYC. As part of my role at GYC, I work with a group of conservationists, ranchers, elected officials, and community members who know that keeping ranching livelihoods viable and bears alive is key to preserving the ecological integrity and way of life in the Ruby Valley. This group is the Ruby Valley Strategic Alliance (RVSA).
The RVSA strives to maintain and enhance the stewardship of working ranches and public lands in Montana’s Ruby Valley. GYC has been a member of the RVSA since the alliance was founded in 2016. Within the alliance, we support ranchers who are trying to decrease bear-livestock conflict on the public lands where they graze their cattle.
By keeping bears out of trouble with livestock, we increase their chances of thriving on the landscape.
Sally Schrank and Erin Steva work together to place a camera trap overlooking a prominent trail. (Photo GYC/London Bernier)
In the winter of 2023, the RVSA designed a study to identify where grizzlies are on the landscape utilizing camera traps. Camera traps may also help us understand how bears react when cattle are introduced to an area. Work was slow going in the rugged terrain, and over the course of our two days in the field, GYC’s crew set up 10 of the 75 camera traps the study will use to survey bear activity on grazing allotments in the Gravelly Range.
Erin Steva re-writes the whiteboard with station name, coordinates, and other key information about a camera trap site under the cover of a mosquito head net. (Photo GYC/London Bernier)
Arrowleaf balsamroot blooms prolifically on a hillside in the Gravelly Range. (Photo GYC/London Bernier)
The Gravellies are full of various habitat – we found ourselves wandering through wildflower meadows, battling branches in dense pine forests, and taking in the smell of fragrant sagebrush. At each site, we identified a likely game trail and placed a camera to take photos of any and all creatures passing by, hoping for bears and cattle. After lively discussions on location, we would agree on a spot and establish a camera site that could be found again by a team who will return in July and October to replace batteries and collect SD cards.
Erin Steva, thinking like a bear, testing the camera’s ability to pick up her presence. (Photo GYC/London Bernier)
I was inspired by the congenial attitude of my coworkers as we bushwacked through varied terrain, donned head nets to escape the mosquitos, and engaged in in-depth discussions around camera placement. I have found working at GYC to be so welcoming, and I think part of our success includes not shying away from the challenge of having discussions with several points of view and no right answer. I would find that I would welcome this same discussion several more times, 10 times to be exact, during our two days and leave each camera site feeling inspired.
GYC’s Erin Steva and Joe Josephson in the field. (Photo GYC/Sally Schrank)
We were rewarded with our first success not ten minutes after leaving the first camera. Joe spotted a bear 20 feet from us in an aspen stand. It was a young black bear with the cutest ears. It was upwind from us, so didn’t notice us until we walked a little further. It popped its head up, took a casual look, and continued grazing. As we did not want to disturb it anymore, we continued on our way.
At the end of two long days of hiking, setting up cameras, and of course, thinking like a bear, we crossed our fingers that at least a couple of grizzly bears would be captured in the frames. During our travels, we saw elk, toads, snakes, dusky grouse, morel mushrooms, and a lot of cows. I am looking forward to the next RVSA meeting where I can share stories from these mountains with the ranchers who rely on this landscape for their livelihoods.
I am proud to be part of this quest for the survival of both grizzly bears and working ranches in the mountains just 60 minutes from my home. Together, we are making progress toward keeping bears wild, people safe, and livelihoods intact in this beautiful and dynamic region we are fortunate to call home.
To find out more about the RVSA, read about the alliance’s work or subscribe to GYC’s emails to receive news about these efforts.
—Sally Schrank, Montana Conservation Coordinator
