BNSF’s $2.9M Initiative To Reduce Human-Bear Conflicts In Montana

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has reported the completion of a plan to improve grizzly bear conservation and conflict reduction activities in northwest and north-central Montana.

Approved recently by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), BNSF's suggested Habitat Conservation Plan was included with their application for an Incidental Take Permission.

Developed in cooperation with FWP and others, this historic plan details actions BNSF will take to lower possible effects on the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) grizzly bear population from human-related mortality. To lower human-bear conflicts and grizzly bear mortality in the environment, BNSF will fund staff, tools, and education costing $2.9 million.

Key components of the plan include:

Conflict Response and Reduction: BNSF will finance extra seasonal grizzly bear technicians hired by FWP. These experts will work on public communication, conflict response, and attractant reduction projects all throughout the NCDE. The money will include extra tools, such as bear-proof containers and electric fences, to help to lower human-bear interactions.

To help monitor bears and lower conflicts, BNSF will pay for extra tools, including remote cameras and radio collars.

BNSF would support initiatives aiming at enhancing garbage disposal facilities and thereby lowering attractants on public and private land.

BNSF will support initiatives aiming at lowering human-bear conflicts and cattle depredation.

Through education and outreach activities, including events and information on living and recreating safely in bear territory, lowering attractants, and how to use bear spray, BNSF will fund initiatives at conflict avoidance in the NCDE.

BNSF has worked with tribal, federal, state, and local government agencies, conservation organizations, and businesses since 1991 to address and lessen issues about grizzly bear mortality associated with train activities.

Mostly by spotting and removing attractants from the right-of-way and installing deterrents when needed in high-risk areas, these initiatives involve agreements to undertake programs and steps to decrease bear and train collisions. In keeping with this, BNSF has extended bear education for railway staff and instituted a fast-response program for grain spills—historically a main draw for bears to railways.

Through supporting wildlife agencies' management and monitoring activities, the habitat preservation plan formalizes BNSF's continuous efforts to promote grizzly bear protection.

John Lovenburg, BNSF VP of Environment & Sustainability, remarked, "BNSF is appreciative of the insight given by stakeholders in this process." "We look forward to working with federal, tribal, and state government partners as well as Montana's Outdoor Legacy Foundation to ensure the effective implementation of the measures set out in the HCP as well as the permit issued by USFWS."

"We are working to apply ideas that benefit communities as well as wildlife," stated MOLF Director Mitch King. "This money will support the work of localized bear experts and help to extend conflict prevention initiatives."

With an estimated 1,100 bears at the NCDE, one of the biggest grizzly bear populations in the contiguous United States is housed there.

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From Glacier National Park to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and neighboring tribal, public and private territory in northwest and north-central Montana, the region covers Under the Endangered Species Act, the habitat conservation plan fits more general initiatives to preserve habitat connectivity and guarantee the species' ongoing recovery.