Group secures 100 acres for grizzly habitat
By Rob Chaney
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WHITEFISH, Montana (Missoulian) — In a western version of Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood, the Vital Ground Foundation has secured a 100-acre bit of forest near Whitefish for grizzly bear habitat.
The private property near Tamarack Creek, 9 miles northwest of Whitefish, has a new conservation agreement that prevents residential development while maintaining hay production and horse pasture. It also completes a crucial wildlife corridor between Glacier National Park and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem to the east and the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem to the west.
The NCDE has the largest resident population of grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states, with an estimated 1,000 or more using the mountains between the Canadian border and Missoula. But the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly recovery area has struggled to maintain its grizzly population. It has an estimated 50 grizzlies, several of which have been transplanted from the NCDE.
“This area is critical for wildlife and wildlife movement,” Vital Ground Conservation Director Mitch Doherty said in an email. “But it’s also still quiet and scenic, with that rural feel that we’re losing in too many places throughout western Montana right now.”
Buildable land in Flathead County has become increasingly sought-after, with median home prices rising almost 50% between 2020 and 2021 to around $550,000. Average days on the market have fallen equally abruptly, from around 110 in 2020 to 40 in 2021.
“The rate at which development is occurring in and around the Flathead Valley right now is astounding,” Doherty said. “If it weren’t for landowners like this who want to protect the rural character of the valley and its habitat for wildlife, we couldn’t retain the scenic vistas and open spaces that everyone cherishes in Northwest Montana. Without conservation protections, this property would likely be dotted with homes in the next five to 10 years.”
Through a program called the One Landscape Initiative, Vital Ground has been focusing on about 188,000 acres in the Rocky Mountain West that have high wildlife connectivity or habitat value. In many cases, the places are relatively small but located between major public land blocks or travel pinch-points.
“One Landscape is simply a knitting together of the strongholds that remain,” said Douglas Chadwick, a biologist, author and Vital Ground trustee who lives in Whitefish. “If we can build wildlife corridors — connectivity — between these remaining strongholds of wildlife, it will hold up over time. This is saving Nature on a large scale and a connected scale.”
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