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Overview
Yellowstone Ecosystem
The Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Recovery Area includes all of Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks, as well as portions of northwest Wyoming, eastern Idaho, and southwest Montana. Other federal lands include the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forests (NF), The Bridger-Teton NF, Caribou-Targhee NF, and the Custer, Gallatin and Shoshone National Forests. Federally-managed lands make up 97.9% of the recovery area’s 9,209 square miles. The majority of the ecosystem is covered in forested mountains. Grizzly bear occupy 48 percent more of this habitat now than when they were listed. Human occupancy of private lands adjacent to the Recovery Area has also increased since the grizzly was listed.
When grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem were listed in 1975, as few as 136 remained. Estimates today place the Yellowstone grizzly population at more than of 650. Since the mid- 1990s, the Yellowstone population has grown 4 to 7 percent per year. On November 15, 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that the Yellowstone Distinct Population Segment (DPS) is a recovered population no longer meeting the ESA’s definition of threatened or endangered.
The Yellowstone DPS now represents a viable population of sufficient numbers and distribution of reproductive individuals to provide a high likelihood that the species will continue to exist and be well distributed throughout this portion of its range for the foreseeable future. The State and Federal agencies’ agreement to implement the extensive Conservation Strategy and state management plans will ensure that adequate regulatory mechanisms remain in place and that the Yellowstone grizzly bear population will not once again become an endangered species.
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