1. INTRODUCTION 



Vision Statement 



Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) envisions a future with a secure, recovered 

 population of grizzly bears in western Montana that includes core populations of 500 or more grizzly 

 bears in the Northern Continental Divide area and 90-125 grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak area. We 

 envision grizzly bear management programs throughout western Montana that are similar to other 

 resident species and which maintain effective biological connections between these two core areas and 

 linkage of these areas with populations to the north in Canada and to potential habitat in the Bitterroot 

 area to the south. It is our vision that one day the populations in western Montana will also interact with 

 the existing population in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA). 



Background to State Plan 



The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), in cooperation with FWP, the U.S. Forest Service (USPS), 

 National Parks Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Blackfeet Tribe and Confederated 

 Salish and Kootenai tribes, currently manages grizzly bears in Montana as "threatened" under authority 

 of the Endangered Species Act. This cooperative management is under the Interagency Grizzly Bear 

 Committee (IGBC) within which all agencies and tribes are partners. FWP is preparing this grizzly bear 

 management plan and draft programmatic environmental impact statement (DPEIS) as a way of 

 expressing the State's ongoing commitment to ensuring the continued expansion and recovery of the 

 species. Moreover, FWP recognizes that successful recovery of grizzly bears requires an integrated 

 approach that balances and incorporates the biological requirements of the bear within a broader social, 

 economic and political framework. 



Within western Montana, grizzly bear populations and their habitats are managed under the Grizzly Bear 

 Recovery Plan utilizing a management approach that identifies recovery zones and adjacent areas where 

 occupancy by grizzly bears is anticipated and biologically and socially acceptable. This document deals 

 with the State's programs for managing grizzly bears throughout the region over the next 10 years. If 

 approved by the FWP Director, the department will begin implementing this plan in accordance with and 

 in cooperation with the Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan, to the extent possible under constraints of the federal 

 Endangered Species Act until grizzlies are delisted. 



FWP recognizes that a broader Conservation Strategy or post delisting management plan will have to be 

 developed for each defined Distinct Population Segment (DPS) defined by the USFWS as per existing 

 regulations, to identify and document specific requirements, including population and habitat standards, 

 which the USFWS will need to meet recovery objectives. Each Conservation Strategy will be jointly 

 developed with other agencies and additional public scrutiny. In order to meet requirements for 

 delisting, all agencies involved will need to sign a Conservation Strategy Memorandum of 

 Understanding (MOU). 



Process for Plan Development 



FWnP developed this plan and DPEIS through a series of meetings with affected agencies, governments, 

 interested persons, and groups. FWP initiated the scoping processes with discussion of potential issues 

 and alternative actions after completion of the management plan in southwestern Montana in 2002. 

 Following these preliminary efforts, FWP held a series of 11 public .scoping meetings in western Montana 



