NPS Photo / Ken Conger
Saving the Custer Gallatin means a lot for grizzlies
Imagine you are a male Yellowstone grizzly bear, you are approximately 800 pounds of muscle, bone, and golden brown fur. You’ve spent the previous five months in a den breathing only two times every minute with your heart beating at one-third its normal rhythm. You emerged from hibernation in April and now you are fully awake and hungry! Now is the time to hunt, forage, and scavenge. The goal is to put on weight as quickly as possible in the short Montana summer. To accomplish this, you must wander for hundreds of miles. You must travel these distances to find the variety and type of food you need to survive. Adding to the challenge is the fact you are a solitary creature and prefer not to be in contact with other bears (unless there’s an abundant food source, then it’s worth it). All of this means your survival is contingent on access to a wide variety of habitat with minimal human impacts.
This is the reality of a Greater Yellowstone grizzly. One of the underlying reasons the Yellowstone griz was able to return from the brink of extinction is the fact that southwest Montana still has national forests that make fantastic bear habitat. However, these beautiful and critical habitats are under threat -- sprawling populations, climate change, and extractive industry. As people who want to protect our last wild places, we are at a key moment for the future protection of grizzlies, wildlife, and wildlands that make the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) special. The Custer Gallatin National Forest which borders the northwest portion of Yellowstone National Park is in the process of a forest plan revision. This forest encompasses over three million acres -- the majority of which is in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Forest plans are incredibly important for habitat conservation because they dictate how the forest will be used for decades.
Custer Gallatin National Forest, Photo: Sarah Pawlowski
Forest planning is a public process. It is an opportunity for the community to weigh in and tell the federal government what they want for the future of public lands. The Custer Gallatin is certainly important to its gateway communities, but it’s also a cornerstone of our wild American country -- which speaks to wildlife and wilderness advocates everywhere. Anyone who enjoys large forestlands, national parks, and viewing abundant, spectacular wildlife, should be invested in the health of the Custer Gallatin. It is part of the last intact temperate ecosystem in the lower 48. It is a symbol of our outdoor values and the extent of what we have to lose.
ACT NOW: The comment period for the Custer Gallatin forest plan revision is coming to an end. We have until June 6 to demand an expansion of wilderness recommendations. The Sierra Club has come up with a plan for the Custer Gallatin that would facilitate connectivity for wildlife across the region including the grizzly bear. I encourage you to get involved and tell the Forest Service that wildlife and wildlands are important and should be protected!
Learn more about the Sierra Club’s position on the Custer Gallatin here.
To comment on the Custer Gallatin forest plan revision, click here.