Working to assure the longterm viability of top carnivore wildlife in the west.
Bears
Habitat Destruction
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Logging, oil and gas development, road construction, cattle ranching, mining, and urban sprawl have destroyed critical bear habitat throughout the world.
Other development projects, especially dams, have significantly degraded fish runs, an important food source for bears. And all too often,
bears pay a fatal price as humans move ever deeper into bear habitat.
Grizzly bears have been especially hard hit by habitat destruction since they are wide-ranging animals who need contiguous, largely undisturbed areas.
At one time there were an estimated 50,000 grizzlies in North America. They once were found from the Mississippi River to the coast of California,
from Mexico to Canada, but grizzlies now occupy less than 2 percent of that range. In the United States,
where grizzlies are found in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming, they are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Today, fewer than 1,100 grizzly bears can be found in the continental U.S.