Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Investigations

In addition to normal monitoring, an array of studies were completed addressing the potential impacts of winter recreation on denning grizzly bears. This research was in response to a lawsuit filed against the Gallatin National Forest and subsequent need to develop a biological assessment addressing effects of snowmobile use on grizzly bears (Cherry 2001). Research results were also used by the National Park Service for a biological assessment and winter use plan (U.S. Department of the Interior 2001) The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) was able to use existing data collected from collared bears to address several issues and data needs for both agencies. Denning chronology (Haroldson et al 2002), denning areas (Podruzny et al 2002), and grizzly distribution (Schwartz et al 2002) were all addressed.