An assessment of road impacts on grizzly bear in the Cascadia ecosystem
Final Report
Dates
Acquisition
2015-12
Summary
The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) was listed as a threatened species in the United States in 1975. Grizzly bear recovery across the range has since been guided by the Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan (USFWS 1993) and within Washington State by the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Area plan (USFWS 1997). The North Cascades Ecosystem extends north into British Columbia and includes the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Population Unit (Apps 2010, BCME 2010). The entire North Cascades ecosystem is within the boundaries of the Cascadia Partner Forum landscape. The Cascadia Partner forum was formed to foster communication among a network of natural resource practitioners working with the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in Washington and British [...]
Summary
The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) was listed as a threatened species in the United States in 1975. Grizzly bear recovery across the range has since been guided by the Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan (USFWS 1993) and within Washington State by the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Area plan (USFWS 1997). The North Cascades Ecosystem extends north into British Columbia and includes the North Cascades Grizzly Bear Population Unit (Apps 2010, BCME 2010). The entire North Cascades ecosystem is within the boundaries of the Cascadia Partner Forum landscape. The Cascadia Partner forum was formed to foster communication among a network of natural resource practitioners working with the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in Washington and British Columbia’s Cascade mountains and to build the adaptive capacity of the landscape and species living within it (Conservation Northwest 2013). Data for the Cascadia Ecosystem indicates there are a handful of grizzly bears that reside in the ecosystem but they likely do not constitute a population (Gaines et al. in press, T.Hamilton, pers.comm.). Bears detected on the BC side appear to be males.
Although there are existing tools and metrics for calculating road densities and analyzing core habitat (IGBC 1998), this is the first time the entire North Cascades Grizzly bear ecosystem has been analysed as a whole.
