The federal government will allocate $12 million to prevent non-lethal conflicts with grizzly bears.

MISSOULA — Montana ranchers and rural communities will now have a better chance of proactively reducing conflicts with grizzly bears thanks to significant federal funding.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation nearly $5 million over the next three years from a Bezos Earth Fund grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The money is intended to help landowners implement non-lethal conflict prevention tools, including carcass removal programs, electric fencing, riders and bear-resistant trash infrastructure and services.

The grant was awarded in part through the collaboration of landowner-led groups such as the Blackfoot Challenge, nonprofit organizations including the Heart of the Rockies Initiative and the National Parks Conservation Association, and federal and state agencies that work to build capacity to prevent conflict. tools.

The Heart of the Rockies Initiative will work with FWP to help producers access these new resources.

“These resources help meet growing demand from producers and landowners who are on the front lines sharing landscapes with growing grizzly bear populations,” Nathan Owens, policy director for the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, said in a press release. “Preventing wildlife conflicts before they happen can help preserve the long-term viability of Montana’s agricultural producers and make it easier for wildlife to move from one place to another.”

Last year, the Heart of the Rockies Initiative received more than $16 million from the USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program for non-lethal predator control in Montana, Oregon and Colorado. Of that amount, Montana will stand to gain between $6 million and $7 million.

In total, the two grants will provide approximately $12 million over the next five years to reduce predator conflicts and conserve wildlife.

The Blackfoot Challenge has become a role model for the use of non-lethal methods of conflict prevention. The number of reported conflicts with grizzly bears has dropped by 90% since carcass collection and free range programs began, even as the area’s bear population has grown by 3% annually.

But the Blackfoot Challenge has been around since 1993, so it has the organization and ability to raise the funds needed for such programs. In most regions this is not the case. So the biggest challenge was finding money to support ongoing efforts such as carcass collection programs. Even the Blackfoot Challenge needed a US Natural Resources Conservation Service innovation grant to begin its carcass collection program.

In late 2020, the Heart of the Rockies Initiative received a grant to study how much money is needed to implement various conflict reduction programs in regions throughout the West. In 2021, the Landowner-Led Conflict Reduction Partnership—a coalition of nine landowner-led organizations and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes—was created to pool resources, but money was tight.

Now, those grants could help cover some of the costs while ranchers wait to see whether similar funds might be included in the next version of the Farm Bill.

“Ranchers across the West face increasingly complex challenges,” said Jim Stone, owner-operator of Rolling Stone Ranch and chairman of the Blackfoot Challenge board, in a press release. “Our ability to ‘neighbor’ and coordinate with multiple partners, including USDA, DOI and FWP, is helping landowners adopt new tools to make agriculture more sustainable. I am very grateful for this partnership approach and the investment in our working lands that these conversations can bring.”

The first infusion of funding is expected this fall for members of the Conflict Reduction Partnership, led by landowners who are already developing conflict prevention programs. Additional funding opportunities will be made available to tribal wildlife agencies, communities and individual producers to share the costs of new electric fencing, carcass removal, range riding and rural sanitation programs.

In addition to CSKT, the Landowner-Led Conflict Reduction Partnership includes the Blackfeet Nation Cattlemen’s Association, Centennial Valley Association, Big Hole Watershed Committee, Granite Conservation District, Ruby Valley Conservation District, Swan Valley Connections, Watershed Restoration Council, Ranch Group Madison Valley and Rocky Mountain Front Collaboration.