Land trust buys grizzly habitat

A Missoula land trust has purchased 57 acres of grizzly habitat at North Idaho’s Bismark Meadows.

Located west of Priest Lake, the 1,100-acre meadows and wetland complex is part of the U.S. Fish and Wild- life’s Selkirk grizzly bear recovery area. The Vital Ground Foundation now has 160 acres in the area.

The recent acquisition protects nearly a quarter-mile of Reeder Creek. A private seller donated a significant portion of the parcel’s value.

Between four and eight grizzlies use Bismark Meadows for spring foraging habitat. Last year, a sow, two cubs and an adult male were seen in the meadows.

Since snow blankets the Selkirk Mountains through early June, grizzlies need low-elevation food sources when they come out of hibernation, said Gary Wolfe, Vital Ground’s executive director. The purchase will protect the land from encroaching development.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation provided money for the purchase, along with First Interstate Bank, individual donors and the Richard K. and Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation.