The Y2Y Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy is the most extensive, large-landscape grizzly-bear conservation effort in the world. By working to protect the grizzly bear – which has vast habitat requirements – the strategy also benefits an entire suite of other wildlife. This premise was integral to the strategy's development.
The goal of the Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy is to make sure that grizzly bears have adequate core habitats to sustain viable populations, and that bears – and other wide-ranging wildlife – can move safely between core habitats. This will ensure population stability and a robust genetic pool. It will also mean that grizzly bears can reoccupy prime habitat from which they have been excluded over the years. Securing critical habitat is a key element of the strategy, as is establishing safe and comfortable coexistence between bears and human communities.
Devising a grizzly-bear conservation strategy for such a vast and diverse region necessitated the creation of distinct geographic Priority Areas - places within the Yellowstone to Yukon region that function either as core wildlife habitat or key habitat corridors connecting core areas. Each of the eight current grizzly-bear Priority Areas (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, High Divide, Central Idaho Complex, Cabinet-Purcell Mountain Corridor, Crown of the Continent, Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, Peace River Break, and the Greater Muskwa-Kechika Ecosystem) has its own unique opportunities and challenges. Our efforts in these geographic areas are being successful – grizzlies are expanding their range, moving into areas they have not occupied for decades, communities are learning to live with grizzlies and major barriers, such as highways are being designed with wildlife crossing structures.
Strategy Goals
- 17,000 – 20,000 grizzly bears exist throughout Yellowstone to Yukon region
- 50-70 % of Yellowstone to Yukon region managed for grizzly bears
- 1 million new acres to expand core areas
- All major transportation routes are permeable to wildlife
- 75% of people living within Yellowstone to Yukon region are knowledgeable about grizzly bears
- More than 50% of communities near grizzly-bear habitat have bear-resistant containers
- Significant reduction in the number of proposals for large recreational and industrial developments in grizzly-bear habitat