The Swan Valley is home to a resident grizzly bear population.  Increases in development, traffic, and forest conversion make it imperative that we monitor the bear population in order to react quickly to any signs of population decline.

Land managers in the Swan Valley have all signed onto the Swan Valley Grizzly Bear Conservation Agreement (PDF). This agreement attempts to protect local grizzlies by rotating timber and limiting open road densities.  When this agreement was first signed in 1994, no monitoring plan was in place.  Northwest Connections filled that void by initiating annual spring track surveys.  For several years we provided documentation of the presence and distribution of grizzly bears in the Swan Valley.

That work led us into other bear monitoring efforts. In 2001-02 we trained and supervised local field crews to survey the Swan Valley and portions of the Yaak Valley for black bears.  This project was a contract with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.  As part of their ten year census of statewide black bear populations, they used hair sampling for DNA to mark black bears and then looked at how many of those bears were harvested in the legal hunting seasons.  The results of this study can be found at
http://fwp.mt.gov/wildthings/tande/monitoring.html.

Snared hair the key to 8-year bear study
by JIM MANN, Daily Inter Lake, September 10, 2008 (PDF)

The largest and most recent project we participated in was the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Study (PDF).  During 2003 and 2004 we hired and trained over twenty people to survey the entire Swan Valley and Mission Mountains for grizzly bear hair samples.  These samples were collected at hair trap stations that involved tricking grizzly bears to step across barbed wire to investigate a strong scent.  We also collected samples at natural bear rub trees along trails, roads and powerlines. 

Northwest Connections was the only non-profit partner on this important grizzly bear study.  We were put in charge of the entire Mission-Swan Subunit, roughly 1 million acres of remote wild country.  The final results of the study are about to be published.  The preliminary results show that there were a minimum of 45 grizzly bears in our subunit, and a minimum count of 560 bears across the entire Northern Divide Ecosystem.  Reference the Grizzly Bear DNA Project Update by Melanie Parker for the Seeley-Swan Pathfinder, November 9, 2006 (PDF). 

Currently, Northwest Connections is helping to disseminate data from GPS radio-collared grizzly bears in the Swan Valley to the public.  We collaborate with Swan Ecosystem Center to provide twice annual presentations of this data in Condon, Montana.  The photo below is an example of data recently presented to the community.  The yellow lines indicate the movements of 12 bears wearing GPS collars over four years.

Click here for a summary report on Swan Valley Grizzly Bears 2000-2004 (PDF).

Northwest Connections also regularly contributes to the Swan Valley Bear Newsletter which is published twice a year and distributed to all residents of the Swan Valley. Click on links below to download these newsletters, in PDF format

Fall 2007 (PDF)

(Visit the BEAR AWARE page at www.swanecosystemcenter.com
for Swan Valley Bear News archives)

Beginning in 2009, Northwest Connections will be offering a three week Wildlife Conservation in Rural Landscapes course through the University of Montana.  Students in this program will assist with bear monitoring efforts and learn about the challenges of recovering a species like the grizzly in rural landscapes.

Tom Parker shows a class about bear peeled trees.