WCS Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund Portal

This project implements State Wildlife Action Plan priorities to protect wildlife movement corridors across the High Divide region of southwest Montana and eastern Idaho.

Funding

WCS helped establish a trans-boundary biologist position that is 1/3 funded by Idaho Fish & Game, 1/3 by the United States Forest Service and 1/3 by WCS. This unique position (with federal, state, and NGO partners) was created to focus on carnivore connectivity issues and human-wildlife conflict issues in the High Divide Region. WCS is interested in continuing funding for this important position to insure carnivores can move between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the open spaces of central Idaho and southwestern Montana

Primary motivations:

Conservation Mission

Primary goals:

The goal of the project is to assess the suitability of the High Divide Region as a major linkage ecosystem for grizzly bears, wolves, cougars, black bears and wolverines in the northern Rockies. Conservation Objective: To maintain and enhance the High Divide Region as a linkage zone for large carnivores and other species of wildlife between the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

Progress:

To date WCS has gathered large datasets on wolverine, grizzly bear, cougar, wolf and black bear habitat use, movements, population densities/sizes, etc in the High Divide Region. WCS data have been used to inform large carnivore managment and conservation in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Updates can be found on our website at: http://www.wcs.org/globalconservation/northamerica/yellowstone?preview=&psid=&ph=class3B.

Consistent with plans:

Habitat Conservation Plan

Local Land Use Plan

Forest Plan

Species Recovery Plan

Federal Land Management Plan

State Wildlife Action Plan

Targeted habitats:

• Forests and Woodlands
  • Conifer Forests
  • Mixed Hardwoods and Conifer
• Human Habitats
  • Agriculture
    • Cultivated Crops
    • Old Field, Abandoned Cropland or Recent Clearcuts
    • Pasture / Hay
  • Urban and Residential
    • Rural Residential (Low Intensity Developed)
    • Suburban Habitats (Moderate Intensity Developed)
    • Urban Habitats (High Intensity Developed)
• Shrublands and Grasslands
  • Alpine and Subalpine Habitats (Meadows, Parklands and Shrublands)
  • Grasslands
  • Shrublands and Steppe
• Wetlands and Riparian Habitats
  • Forested or Shrub Wetlands and Swamps
  • Lowland Riparian Forests and Shrublands
  • Marshes, Bogs and Emergent Wetlands
  • Montane Riparian Forests and Shrublands

Targeted species:

• Wolverine Gulo gulo
• Cougar Puma concolor
• American Black Bear Ursus americanus
• Gray Wolf Canis lupus
• Brown Bear Ursus arctos

Is the success of this project's actions being monitored?   Yes