Six new wildlife bills are making their way through the Montana State Legislature. Read on to learn about their implications for wildlife, GYC’s position on each bill, and the current status of the legislation.

GYC opposes SJ 14, which is a resolution in the 2023 Montana State Legislature that is bad for bison.

One year ago, the Inter-Tribal Gathering brought together people to elevate native voices throughout Greater Yellowstone and build better government-to-government relationships between Tribes and America’s federal public lands managers. Since the event, GYC has made big strides in protecting and restoring Native conservation priorities.

To create safer roads for people and ensure wildlife can move and migrate more easily in Teton County, wildlife crossing structures are being built. Wildlife crossing structures—both overpasses and underpasses and their associated fences—are reliable, long-term solutions for reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions. 

GYC is celebrating 40 years of working with all people to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife of the remarkable Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

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. 

GYC is working alongside the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes to ask the Department of Interior to repatriate three land parcels that make up the 111,000-acre “Muddy Ridge” request in support of Treaty Rights and Tribal Sovereignty. 

Through the Yellowstone Bison Conservation Transfer Program, disease-free Yellowstone bison are relocated from the park to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. This is their last step before being restored to Tribal and public lands across America.

The legislatures are back in session in the great states of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, which means lawmakers have been sworn in, new bills are being introduced, and the GYC advocacy team is hard at work monitoring potential changes to state policy that affects Greater Yellowstone conservation.  

Guest blogger Darren Calhoun writes on the devastating effects of Diversion Dam on the Big Wind River and what can be done to help this river heal.

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.