endangered, however, the federal Endangered Species Act would supersede this and direct management 

 within Cabinet-Yaak. Alternatively, FWP could seek a change from the USFVVS to alter the status of the 

 Cabinet- Yaak population to endangered and pursue recovery in that arena. 



While the grizzly bear is currently listed as warranted but precluded for endangered status, there has 

 been litigation to force the change to endangered status. Moreover, there are certain segments of the 

 public that feel that more restrictive habitat and land management constraints need to be in place for this 

 population to survive and endangered status would support those actions. 



Benefits 



• Endangered status would bring the full force of the statute into the recovery effort. 



• Larger land areas could be managed with more focus on the needs of grizzly bears. 



• Endangered status would limit resource industry activities harmful to bears. 



• Make clear the legal status of the bear to the public. 



Challenges 



• In our judgment, local support under fully endangered status would be difficult to maintain. 



• Resource industries could be further impacted by additional regulations. 



• Past experiences with other species shows elevated levels of social conflict with large carnivores 

 being managed under endangered status. 



• FWP cannot directly implement this alternative because only the USFWS can revise the status of this 

 population. 



Northern Continental Divide Recovery Zone and Surrounding Areas 



The NCD recovery zone encompasses approximately 9,600 mi- of northwest Montana (see Figure 2). 

 Extending south from the Canadian border, it continues west into the Flathead and Mission valleys, 

 south to the Blackfoot River basin, and eastward onto the Rocky Mountain Front. It includes a varied 

 landscape encompassing five Wilderness areas (Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, Great Bear, Rattlesnake, and 

 Mission Mountains), portions of five National Forests (Flathead, Kootenai, Lolo, Helena, and Lewis & 

 Clark), Glacier National Park, the Blackfeet and Flathead Indian Reservations, and other federal, state, 

 and private lands. 



Because of its proximitv to Canadian bear populations, large land area, and high proportion of 

 designated wilderness and national park lands, the NCDE offers some of the best long-term prospects of 

 supporting a viable grizzly bear population among the six areas designated as grizzly bear recovery 

 zones in the US. While final results from the current NCDE DNA project will not be available until early 

 2007, the Department's previous ElS's have eshmated that the NCDE supports a grizzly bear population 

 of approximately 500-700 bears. If results from the NCDE DNA study estimate a substantially different 

 population size, programs may have to be adjusted. 



The area is characterized by extremely diverse habitats, much of it being heavily forested, mountainous, 

 and a largely roadless wilderness. Conversely, more than 10% of this ecosystem is private land and the 

 majorit)' of bear-human conflicts and bear deaths occur on these private lands. In 1980, using baseline 

 information collected by the Border Grizzly Project, FWP launched an ecological study of grizzly bears 

 along the Rocky Mountain East Front. This area contains a unique transition between the Rocky 

 Mountain Cordillera and the short-grass prairies of the Great Plains. This study ended in 1987 and 

 provided information on the ecological requirements of grizzly bears along the eastern side of the NCDE, 



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