Montana's hot real estate market is making it harder and more expensive to conserve grizzly bear habitats. Nonprofit conservation groups trying to connect isolated bear populations face the challenge of a growing human population and the rising cost of land.
Driving down highway 93 south of Lolo, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) grizzly bear manager, Jamie Jonkel, points out a large swath of open ranch and farmland he says grizzly bears use to make their way across the Bitterroot Valley.
"This is the last connectivity available in the Bitterroot Valley," he says.
Little arteries of land like this one serve as a path for grizzlies to travel between previously isolated populations of bears. Wildlife managers like Jonkel want the bruins to make the journey between established populations near Glacier and Yellowstone national parks in order to diversify the bears' genetic pool. This connectivity can also help establish new populations, which is the goal in the Bitterroot.
Getting out of the car in the middle of the lone subdivision in this section of the valley, Jonkel says he worries more that the developments will crop up, making it harder or impossible for bears to pass through.
"Once they get developed, they're gone."
m0ar
Maybe the bears will eat the liberal CA locust that are buying the land and fucking up the state......Hope springs eternal......Hey CA powder-puff, can you skin Griz?
Driving down highway 93 south of Lolo, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) grizzly bear manager, Jamie Jonkel, points out a large swath of open ranch and farmland he says grizzly bears use to make their way across the Bitterroot Valley.
"This is the last connectivity available in the Bitterroot Valley," he says.
Little arteries of land like this one serve as a path for grizzlies to travel between previously isolated populations of bears. Wildlife managers like Jonkel want the bruins to make the journey between established populations near Glacier and Yellowstone national parks in order to diversify the bears' genetic pool. This connectivity can also help establish new populations, which is the goal in the Bitterroot.
Getting out of the car in the middle of the lone subdivision in this section of the valley, Jonkel says he worries more that the developments will crop up, making it harder or impossible for bears to pass through.
"Once they get developed, they're gone."
m0ar
Maybe the bears will eat the liberal CA locust that are buying the land and fucking up the state......Hope springs eternal......Hey CA powder-puff, can you skin Griz?
