Grizzly bears, like many other species in the Northern Rockies, need rich low elevation habitats that provide high quality food and security.

The image below shows the hourly locations of 12 Swan Valley grizzly bears, 24 hours/day, for the non-denning season of May - October. Bears are making good use of the lowest elevations between the Bob Marshall and Mission Mountains Wilderness Areas. This underscores the need for coordinated efforts to protect these low elevation lands while promoting human-bear co-existance along the highway-river corridor.

Northwest Connections has been involved in several monitoring projects over the years to document the presence, distribution, abundance and behavior of both black bears and grizzlies. Currently, most of our work is focused on promoting the co-existence of bears and people.

Swan Valley Bear Resources

Using community resources to promote human-bear coexistence.

In collaboration with several other non-profit groups and government agencies, Northwest Connections is working to deliver information, education, and material resources to Swan Valley residents.

Swan Valley Bear Resources hosts public events like the Bear Fair, constructs electric fences for residents with livestock, and issues bear resistant garbage containers to Swan Valley residents and businesses.  We also assist bear managers with rapid response to grizzly bear conflicts in the Swan Valley.

IMAGE CREDITS: Top - Steven Gnam;
SVBR Bear Fair slideshow - Colleen Ferris and Brook Stallings