A million reasons for gratitude-and motivation

As bears rest in their dens and families gather for the holidays, there is much to celebrate in the world of wildlife conservation-and much more work ahead.

For grizzly bears, the slow march toward durable recovery in the lower 48 states continues, with populations making gradual gains in 2023 and bears reclaiming historic range, including the first documented grizzly sighting in the Missouri River Breaks region of North Central Montana in more than a century.

As the grizzlies' numbers and range grew this year, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) reported that across multiple ecosystems, conflicts with humans were less frequent than in recent years, a crucial positive sign for the future of coexistence. While many human and nonhuman factors can impact a single year's conflict numbers, there is no doubt that the ongoing spread of coexistence programs across grizzly country-led by partners ranging from community nonprofits to state, tribal and federal agencies to landowners themselves-has played a large role in turning this corner toward safer shared landscapes.

The Seeley-Swan area has long set a high standard for robust community-led coexistence. From bear-proof sanitation to electric fencing and bear spray education, many collaborators continue this crucial work and deserve great thanks after another year of essential efforts!

Conserving Key Acres

In our own corner of the conservation community, Vital Ground is celebrating two noteworthy milestones at year's end, with deep gratitude to our supporters and partners near and far, including many in the Seeley-Swan. By the end of 2023, Vital Ground will reach 1 million acres of habitat protected or enhanced through the combined products of our own land conservation projects and investments made in partners' efforts. Complementing the work of conserving land, our Conservation Partners Grant Program has now disbursed more than $1 million to other nonprofit, agency and local community partners to prevent conflicts between bears and people.

From our first conservation easement-on Bud Moore's Coyote Forest property near Condon-to ongoing habitat protection efforts across western Montana and northern Idaho and partnerships extending to Wyoming and Washington, we are humbled to continue this important work.

Most recently, Vital Ground expanded habitat protections in a key portion of the Yaak Valley of far northwestern Montana. A 64-acre land acquisition in November enlarged our Fowler Creek conservation area along a main tributary of the Yaak River. This valley-bottom habitat provides crucial seasonal range for grizzlies, wolves, elk, moose and much more, with one of our trail cameras in the Yaak recently documenting a Canada lynx crossing habitat protected by Vital Ground! (For an up-close view of these recent projects, check out our YouTube page: youtube.com/ForTheGrizzly.)

For the Yaak's 25-30 grizzly bears, an open, connected landscape is a matter of survival. The population's long-term future depends on increasing its genetic diversity through breeding with bears from elsewhere. With a recent uptick in grizzly movement between the Yaak and the neighboring Cabinet Mountains, conservation of bottomlands like Fowler Creek allows bears to move safely across the larger regional landscape and slowly reconnect their fragmented range.

"It's only in the last decade or so that we've started to see movement from the Yaak to the Cabinets or vice versa, places that are not anchored by large wildernesses or national parks," says Wayne Kasworm, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who has led grizzly recovery in the Cabinet-Yaak and neighboring Selkirk Ecosystem since 1983. "When it comes to protection of private lands, it's important to conserve some of the larger properties where we have that opportunity. When we talk about easements and acquisitions, we talk about things that outlive those of us that are here now. That's an important thing for wildlife going forward into the future."

Projects like Fowler Creek that protect both wetland and forested habitat carry broad benefits, maintaining water storage and water quality. With parts of western Montana continuing to experience intense real estate pressures, these conservation outcomes ensure that special places will retain their rural character for generations to come.

Of course, similar work in the Swan Valley helped Vital Ground find its stride as a land trust nearly 20 years ago. Our initial project with the Moores has grown to seven easements in the Elk Flats neighborhood and many more projects up and down the valley, most recently the Salmon Prairie easement completed with landowners in early 2023. We were also proud to support community-led bear-aware efforts in Seeley Lake and up and down the Swan again this season. The valley remains an essential hub for large-landscape connectivity, its many conservation-minded landowners and community members are key players in the broader regional progress of grizzly recovery.

As we enter a new year, the human-caused pressures facing grizzlies and other sensitive wildlife remain strong, meaning our collaborative work on their behalf must continue to expand and excel. We're grateful for so many friends, donors and partners who've made our conservation successes possible thus far. Here's to the next million acres!