An environmental group has petitioned the federal government to reintroduce grizzly bears to the Selway-Bitterroot mountains of Idaho and Montana, saying the region is critical to the bears’ recovery in the Lower 48 states. Re-establishing grizzlies in the Selway-Bitterroots would provide a link between genetically isolated bear populations in Yellowstone National Park and the Northern Rockies, said Andrea Santarsiere, the Center for Biological Diversity’s staff attorney. Past studies indicate that the 16 million-acre region could support 300 to 600 grizzlies. “There are large expanses of wilderness; it’s heavily forested with low road densities,” Santarsiere said. “It has everything that you look for in potential suitable habitat for grizzly bears”/Becky Kramer, SR. More here. (U.S. Geological Survey by Kim Keating: Grizzly bears are expanding their range in the West)