Big win for Wyoming wildlife! The Kelly Parcel is approved for direct sale to the Grand Teton National Park for $100 million with the passage of Wyoming’s biennium budget bill.  

Spring has officially sprung! Migratory antelope, deer, elk, and moose are beginning their journeys from winter refuge throughout public lands across southeastern Idaho to summer habitat, primarily in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. And here at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, our Idaho team is eagerly preparing for the Bureau of Land Management to release the final plan for the Upper Snake East Travel Management Planning Area later this season – a landscape that includes winter wildlife refuges and migratory corridors to summer habitat.

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.

The BLM released the most significant change in the management of BLM lands in 50 years with the final Public Lands Rule, which puts conservation on equal ground with other uses like mining and energy development.

The Wind River Water and Buffalo Alliance is seeking a graphic artist for the development of a project logo. The Wind River Water and Buffalo Alliance is a coalition of Tribal agencies, Tribal councils, and non-profit organizations working to advance conservation and protect the Indigenous way of life.

What are some of the ways you enjoy spring? In this staff picks blog, we’re excited to share with you some of our staff’s favorite things to listen to, read, see, and explore in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Some of these recommendations will help you enjoy the quiet while others will have you planning for summer.

As a keystone species — organisms who play an outsized part in shaping their ecosystem — beavers and the wetlands they maintain serve a unique and irreplaceable role in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Beavers are also ecosystem engineers, second only to humans in their ability to alter a landscape. By cutting wood and building dams, beavers do more than just build dams.

Rivers are the lifeblood of Montana. A low snow year, coupled with the impacts of population growth and climate change, are stark reminders that our rivers need our help. That’s why now is the time to pass the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act (MHLA). As we anticipate the bill’s hearing this spring, we critically need Senator Daines to support the MHLA.

Yellowstone Safe Passages (YSP) is celebrating a milestone in their work toward making Highway 89 safer for people and wildlife. On March 11, 2024, YSP released the US 89 Wildlife and Transportation Assessment to the public. The assessment offers proven solutions for seven areas with the highest rates of wildlife-vehicle collisions and detailed explanations why those sites were identified.

In the depths of winter, we offer recommendations to try while the snow is flying and others that we hope will inspire your summer schemes! Plan your own geocaching adventure anywhere in the ecosystem or a backcountry expedition in Grand Teton National Park, read a hopeful story about climate change, and let us introduce you to a couple of four-legged adventure buddies in this GYC Staff Picks Blog.

Yellowstone National Park’s Bison Conservation Transfer Program continues to make history. In early February, Yellowstone relocated the largest number of live Yellowstone bison to American Indian Tribes to date. One hundred and sixteen healthy bison were loaded onto secure trucks and moved from Yellowstone National Park nearly 500 miles north to the Fork Peck Indian Reservation where they will complete their final year of testing before being transferred on to Tribes across North America.

On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found a petition by some conservation groups to add Northern Rockies wolves back to the Endangered Species Act was not necessary, identified Western States wolves as a distinct population, and committed to initiating a process to develop a new national recovery plan for wolves.