Conservation group buys land for grizzly migration
<p>This July 27, 2011 image provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows USFWS personnel working in Libby, Mont., on a female bear captured south of Marias Pass, Mont., before releasing her into the Cabinet Mountains as part of an effort to boost the grizzly population in northwestern Montana.(AP Photo/USFWS)</p>
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A conservation group has bought 71 acres in the Yaak Mountains in northwestern Montana near Troy with the goal of improving migration corridors for grizzly bears and other wildlife in the region.
The Missoula-based Vital Ground Foundation bought the land this week from a private landowner.
"We chose this location because much of the adjacent property is on Forest Service holdings, so we were building on a conservation holding to begin with," said Ryan Lutey, director of lands for the foundation.
The parcel is in the 2,600-square-mile Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone that also includes North Idaho. Lutey said the purchased land offers low-elevation habitat for wildlife along the Kootenai River and is ideal winter range for deer, elk and moose.
"It has tremendous wildlife values and scenic values," Lutey said.
He said the group plans restoration work on the property that involves removing dilapidated buildings and fighting noxious weeds. He said the total cost of the project, including buying the land, transactions fees, restoration work, and setting aside a stewardship endowment for future costs such as taxes, is $440,000.
The Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk Grizzly Bear Recovery Zones in northwest Montana and North Idaho are home to an estimated 70 grizzlies, the nation's smallest population of the bears. Experts say keeping wildlife corridors available for grizzlies is vital for their genetic diversity.
Lutey said the purchase was the group's top priority under the Cabinet-Purcell-Selkirk Wildlife Linkage Initiative, and the corridor will help sustain the viability of endangered grizzly bear populations in the U.S. He noted that habitat fragmentation from development in the region has disrupted wildlife migratory routes.
With the acquisition now complete, Lutey said the group plans to next work on acquiring five parcels of 187 acres that the group has an option-to-purchase through December. The project cost is about $1.15 million.
"We have another property under contract on the south side of the Clark Fork where there has been significant documented grizzly bear activity, but it is just outside of the south end of the recovery zone," Lutey said. "That will continue to be our focus through the end of the year."