Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon have announced the successful translocation of two grizzly bears from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) in Montana to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in Wyoming.

“Wyoming’s grizzly bear recovery efforts are monumental and expensive. It is frustrating that time and time again, we meet a bar set by the court, only to see the goalposts moved yet again,” Gov. Gordon said. “This week’s effort assures genetic connection can be achieved through active management to address the court’s requirement where a healthy number of grizzlies, and an ever-expanding range have not been sufficiently convincing to the Ninth Circuit.”

“Montana has worked diligently to set up a framework to take over management of grizzly bears in our state,” Gov. Gianforte said. “This translocation effort demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the conservation of bears in the NCDE and the GYE. It’s time to delist the grizzly bear and let the states take over management.”

Through a partnership between Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), the translocations were the result of a commitment between Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho under the Tri-State Memorandum of Agreement.

The agreement was established to ensure the long-term genetic diversity of the GYE’s grizzly bear population and secure a genetic connection between the two areas and the recovered populations of bears.

The bears, a subadult female and subadult male, were captured in a remote portion of northwest Montana by FWP and transported safely and securely to Wyoming, where WGFD received the subadult female and Yellowstone National Park received the subadult male.

On July 30th, the states released a subadult female in the Blackrock drainage approximately 35 miles northwest of Dubois, Wyoming.

On July 31th, Yellowstone National Park personnel released a subadult male, within the park boundaries, in a remote area south of Yellowstone Lake.

In 2019, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Crow Indian Tribe v. United States that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must ensure the long-term genetic diversity of the GYE’s grizzly bear population.

The translocation addresses concerns cited by the court and demonstrates the commitment of Wyoming and Montana to ensure that diversity remains.

Both Wyoming and Montana have engaged in legal efforts to delist the grizzly bear in the GYE.

In December 2021, Gov. Gianforte petitioned the federal government to delist the grizzly bear in the NCDE.

In February 2023, he welcomed the FWS acceptance of the state of Montana’s petition to delist grizzly bears in the NCDE in northwest Montana.

“After decades of work, the grizzly bear has more than recovered in the NCDE, which represents a conservation success. I’m proud of our progress with the federal government to delist the grizzly in the NCDE, opening the door to state management of this iconic American species,” Gov. Gianforte said.

Governor Gordon petitioned the federal government to delist the GYE grizzly population in January, 2022.

“Now it is clear that the grizzly bear in the Yellowstone ecosystem should be delisted, as it has been twice before. Wyoming thanks their partners in Montana and Idaho for their commitment to this effort,” Gov. Gordon added.

The bears selected for the translocation had no history of conflict and will be monitored through a GPS collar.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team will continue regular genetic monitoring of the GYE
population.

Many of us remember when the conservation groups in Bozeman actually supported conservation. 

Many of us worked hand-in-hand with these groups to address the broad array of impacts on the wild lands, water and wildlife of the public lands of the northern part of the Yellowstone Ecosystem.

I and others in the Madison Gallatin Alliance worked hand in hand with The Wilderness Society and the Montana Wilderness Association on promoting the wilderness designation for the all roadless lands in the Gallatin and Madison Ranges. We secured a politically pared back Lee Metcalf Wilderness in the early ’80s.

I seriously doubt if anyone working for TWS or the group formerly known as the “Montana Wilderness Association (Wild Montana)” remembers those groups’ former strong support for wilderness designation for the roadless lands in the Gallatin Range.  The Greater Yellowstone Coalition was formed by many individuals who had supported, at a minimum, the 155,000 acre Wilderness Study Area created by Sen. Lee Metcalf’s Montana Wilderness Study Act as his last, great gift to protect the natural values of Montana’s pristine wild lands. The Gallatin Range was half of the original Lee Metcalf Wilderness Proposal.  

About 15 years ago, TWS, MWA and GYC made a mockery of the legacy of Lee Metcalf with their “Summer of Lee” functions full of hollow talk hiding the fact that they were actually working to gut, not support, that legacy Metcalf gave the people of Montana, and all people, by the interim protection of the Gallatin Range (and a number of other areas) until a formal study of the wilderness values of the range were assessed and Congress acted, one way or the other. The actions of these groups no longer support – as they darned well should – our nation’s bedrock environmental laws.  These groups’ use of collaboration goes against the very basis of these laws and goes against the basic concepts of sound conservation.

These groups now put the short-term, me-now special interests of mechanized recreation first, which is incompatible with not just Metcalf’s Montana Wilderness Study Act, which protected the core of the Gallatin Range, but threatened and endangered species of wildlife which are the indicator species for the natural health of the ecosystem. How can the actions of these three groups be justified given the basis of premise upon which they were founded.  Let me count the ways.

How many of those who support these three groups actually know that their actions may not be what they think the groups are doing. One friend recently dropped his membership in Wild Montana when he learned just that — that the organization’s actions were not what he understood they were doing.

On July 10, I received a few emails from friends in Montana expressing the shock that one or more staff person(s) of GYC – at a supposed open, public meeting about the Gallatin Forest Partnership – told my old friend Dorothy Bradley to sit down and be quiet.  When she continued to question their information, another staffer turned the music up so high no one could hear Dorothy.  

This is more than shocking.  This is the disappointing reflection of the demise of three organizations with which many of us worked on issues for about 25 years. This bodes ill for conservation in Montana and the Yellowstone Ecosystem.

GYC’s vision stated, “Our vision is a healthy and intact Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem where critical lands and waters are adequately protected, wildlife is managed in a thoughtful, sustainable manner and a strong, diverse base of support is working to conserve this special place as part of a larger, connected Northern Rocky Mountain Region.” 

It is obvious from their actions of the last 15 or more years, they either changed the stated vision for the group or are simply ignoring it for short-term gain.

The Yellowstone Ecosystem is one of the largest nearly intact temperate ecosystems on Earth.  Why would groups that bill themselves as “conservation” groups not recognize the importance of protecting the ecosystem? We can already see how climate change is impacting humans, wildlife and the land itself.  It is critical to take steps to protect and preserve the Yellowstone Ecosystem, not promote it for uses that degrade the critical natural values.

Kendall Jenner is getting candid about what her life was like growing up in the spotlight, as well as the challenges of being a teen model.

During a recent appearance on the Anything Goes podcast, the supermodel and media personality compared growing up in the public eye on Keeping Up With the Kardashians to the life of Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus’ character on the hit Disney Channel show.

“It’s a little Hannah Montana-y in a way,” Jenner told host Emma Chamberlain. “[But] I didn’t have a disguise, or I didn’t have a physical shift.”

Hannah Montana, which ran from 2006 to 2011 for four seasons, followed Miley Stewart’s (Cyrus) adventures as a typical teenager who also has a secret identity as a famous pop star, Hannah Montana.

“We went to school. We went to school as long as we could,” she continued. “I started home school, 11th and 12th grade … so even though we had a TV show at home, we were going to regular school all day and had our friends that we had from before the show started.” 

Jenner noted that while her life wasn’t “always easy,” being on camera from a young age, “it did feel kind of normal,” adding, “We lived as much of a normal life as, I think, was possible and I’m so grateful for that.” 

When Keeping Up with the Kardashians first premiered in 2007, launching her family to fame, Jenner was only 10 years old. She also recalled she and her younger sister Kylie Jenner having to do “very adult things at a really young age.” However, she admitted she’s “really grateful” overall because “I think it could have been a lot worse.”

A few years later, in her early teens, Kendall began her modeling career. She acknowledged to Chamberlain that she’s been “extremely fortunate” in the industry and mostly had a “beautiful experience,” but confessed to hitting some speed bumps along the way.

“I’m not gonna sit here and say that I’ve had the toughest journey. I think I’ve been extremely fortunate,” Kendall said. “But I also have had my own set of challenges, whether it’s [being] overworked or not getting a job that I would’ve really loved to get.”

The Kardashians star added that sometimes life was “very lonely” traveling the world as a teen for work and being away from family and friends for long periods.

“I’ve had really dark nights where I’ve been in random cities and just hysterically crying myself to sleep because I haven’t been home in three months and I’ve been pretty much alone the entire time,” Kendall said. “There’s been a lot of definite moments where I’m like, ‘What is going on, is this all worth it?’”