The Great Grizzly Search...

is collaborative effort to document the presence and distribution of grizzly bears in north-central Idaho and western Montana within the area encompassing the Bitterroot Mountains, the Salmon and Selway river drainages and adjacent mountain ranges. The federal government has proposed reestablishment of a healthy grizzly population in this area, claiming that no credible sightings of grizzly bears have occurred within this area in more than 60 years. However, sightings continue to be made and reported by hunters, outfitters and guides, hikers and horse users, and government employees.

Regardless of one's position on restoration of grizzly bears in this area, we feel it is important public information to know if grizzly bears may still be found in Salmon-Selway-Bitterroot region. We request your cooperation in this effort.

Joining the Search
Please contact AWR if you are interested in volunteering with the GGS field team.

GGS in the News

• Wall Street Journal, The WSJ reported on the first trip of the 2000 field season.
  
  
• Post Register, Idaho Falls. Subsequently an Associated Press version of this story ran on the front page of the Bozeman Chronicle and in prominent locations in the Boise Idaho Statesman, the Spokane Spokesman-Review, and others.
  
  
• Missoula Independent. The Griz Files. Conventional wisdom and the USFWS both maintain that grizzly bears haven't been seen in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness since the 1940s. But reports over the years from outfitters and even Forest Service personnel have convinced activists that there are at least a few griz still out there. The issue is not merely academic; its outcome will influence the legal and political status of a current federal plan to import grizzlies to the Bitterroots. Environmental reporter Steven Allison-Bunnell bushwhacks through the scientific uncertainty and public mistrust motivating the "Great Grizzly Search."
  
  
• The Missoulian Grizzly bears inhabit the Bitterroot Mountains, but the federal government is ignoring their presence to avoid protecting the big bruins as threatened species, the leaders of eight environmental groups said Monday. The environmentalists announced the Great Grizzly Search to document the presence and distribution of grizzlies in the 22,000-square-mile Salmon-Selway ecosystem of western Montana and central Idaho. "We believe there are grizzly bears back in that country - that there have been credible reports - and that the very agencies responsible for recovering healthy populations of grizzlies have ignored those reports," said Mike Bader, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

Good luck in your search for the Great Grizzly.

For Grizzly/ Black Bear pocket-size identification booklets:

Great Grizzly Search
PO Box 8983
Missoula, MT 59807
Request via e-mail (send us your mailing address, and type "Grizzly ID Cards" in the subject line):

Collaborating Organizations:

Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Wilderness Watch
Great Bear Foundation
Craighead Wildlife-Wildlands Institute
Big Wild Advocates
Friends of the Clearwater
Sierra Club