We recap our 2024 favorite conservation moments and wins in Greater Yellowstone.

To be good neighbors and stewards of this ecosystem, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition is working in Montana and Wyoming to create wildlife-friendly fences. In 2024, GYC supported 11 fencing projects that removed or modified more than 16 miles of fence! 

To prevent bears from coming onto campus and getting into garbage, GYC partnered with Bear Awareness Gardiner and Gardiner Public Schools to install bear-proof garbage containers on the school grounds. When used properly, bear-proof trash cans prevent bears from getting into garbage, which prevents them from getting in trouble and keeps them alive. It will also prevent close encounters with students, staff, and visitors. 

On November 19, 2024, the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act passed the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for the first time in its legislative history. This brings the made-in-Montana legislation one step closer to becoming law.

Earlier this year, we saw continued progress for Yellowstone wolves in Montana with incremental, yet critically important changes to state policies. Yet, wolf conservation is undoubtedly riddled with challenges. Recent reports indicate five wolves were killed in WMU 313 just north of Yellowstone, despite this season’s three-wolf quota. GYC and our partners advocated for and secured a solution that we hoped would prevent this level of pack disruption, and unfortunately that was not the case. GYC is committed to building consensus for durable solutions that protect Yellowstone wolves. 

Yellowstone cutthroat trout once occupied habitat across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and slivers of Nevada and Utah. Now, they are in steep competition with nonnative fish for habitat and resources. To help give the Yellowstone cutthroat trout a leg up, GYC staffers volunteered to work with partners to remove invasive brook trout from Mill Creek, a slow-moving stream near Yellowstone National Park’s northern border.

Grizzly bears are one of Greater Yellowstone’s most iconic species and a key component in a healthy ecosystem, but their wildness and human safety is put at risk by the bears’ penchant for getting into trash. This summer, GYC invested in various programs to implement bear-resistant storage solutions across the ecosystem, including at campgrounds, a school, and backcountry livestock allotments.

After four years of collaborating with partners, meeting with landowners, hosting community workshops and events, collecting data, and investigating tangible solutions, Yellowstone Safe Passages is proud to announce that their proposal for two overpasses at the Dome Mountain priority site along US Highway 89 has been awarded state funding to complete an engineering feasibility study. 

On August 16, 2024, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission voted for incremental, yet critically important changes to state policies aimed at improving conditions for Yellowstone wolves and the people that depend on them. These changes will reduce the risk that entire Yellowstone packs can be killed just across the park boundary and ban the use of motion tracking devices (e.g., telemetry) as hunting practices that could provide an unfair advantage to wolf hunters.

In June 2024, GYC and the U.S. Forest Service finalized the second phase of the Absaroka-Beartooth Gateway acquisition project, turning several former mining claims in the New World Mining District into protected public lands. Now, the risk of mining on these lands is greatly reduced.

Southwest Montana’s Madison and Gallatin mountain ranges are some of the wildest places left in the continental United States. These wild lands are beloved by those who live here and those who visit, and they are under threat. That’s why the Gallatin Forest Partnership has developed a realistic solution to permanently protect 250,000 acres of public land in the Madison and Gallatin ranges – the Greater Yellowstone Conservation and Recreation Act.

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.