Back to StoriesTo Honor Bear 399, Limit Traffic and Development
December 12, 2024
To Honor Bear 399, Limit Traffic and Development Unchecked growth and exploding driving rates are endangering Greater Yellowstone’s wildlife. It’s time to take the crisis seriously.
by Luther Propst and Ben Goldfarb
The world’s most famous grizzly, Bear 399, met her end
on the evening of October 22, the victim of a car hurtling through Snake River
Canyon south of Jackson, Wyoming. Few wild animals have ever been more beloved:
Grizzly 399 lived to 28 years old, raised more than 20 cubs, and was
photographed millions of times along Grand Teton National Park’s roadsides. She
was an avatar of wildness and parental devotion, and, by virtue of her comfort
with humans, our link to the majestic megafauna with whom we share the land.
One bear manager told
Mountain Journal contributor Kevin
Grange that she embodied “adaptability, resiliency,
flexibility and loyalty.”
To biologists, 399 represented both an encouraging
trend for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s grizzlies—and the perils they
face. As grizzly populations within the core GYE have approached carrying capacity,
399 sought unoccupied habitats and new food resources in more developed
portions of southern Teton County; few residents forget the evening in November
of 2021 when she wandered through downtown Jackson with four cubs in tow. Her calm,
human-tolerant personality, and the affection that locals and tourists showered
upon her, proved that people and ursids can coexist as grizzly ranges expand
out of protected areas. But her violent death also showed that bears and other
wandering wildlife confront severe threats—risks that are growing worse by the
day.
As 399 could tragically attest, the most pervasive danger
to Greater Yellowstone, and the health of wildlands around the world, remains very
much unhealed. Our planet is fragmented by 40 million miles of roads, which are
collectively prowled by more than a billion vehicles. Although the GYE is a
relative bastion of roadlessness—southern Yellowstone is the farthest a bear (or
human) can wander from a road in the Lower 48, around 20 miles—it’s still
chockablock with motorized routes, from major highways like U.S. 20 and WYO 22
to the thousands of miles of logging and mining tracks that spiderweb the
Custer Gallatin and other national forests. These roads, and the traffic that
increasingly clogs them, are in large measure responsible for isolating the
GYE’s bears from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem around Glacier
National Park, and thwarting the genetic exchange that would ensure the
long-term health of grizzlies throughout the Northern Rockies. Bears and roads
simply don’t mix.
Map of roads in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Courtesy USGS/Yellowstone Spatial Analysis Center
Unfortunately, that fragmentation is only getting worse,
not only for bears but for elk, deer, moose and the many other species who must
wander beyond Yellowstone’s borders to survive. The 18 counties that encompass Greater
Yellowstone are growing rapidly; the population of Bozeman, for one, has exploded
by more than 50 percent since 2010, making it among the
fastest-growing small cities in the country. Teton County and Jackson continue
to boom as more tourist lodging and luxury homes for wealthy retirees and
remote workers goes up every year. The unaffordability of Jackson displaces
local workers to places like Star Valley, Wyoming, and Victor, Idaho, forcing
more people to commute longer distances through prime wildlife habitat,
exacerbating roadkill and fragmentation.
Like many other cities and counties, Teton County,
Wyoming, and the town of Jackson are fond of making lofty and elaborate plans
to reduce traffic and commuting rates, and balance jobs and affordable housing.
But the pressure for lodging and luxury housing typically overwhelm these plans.
Instead, affordable housing policies are primarily deployed to put a happy face
on the unchecked growth of new hotels, short-term rentals, tourist attractions
and luxury second homes. Other counties continue to approve more rural
subdivisions and up-scale resorts without even pretending to value wildlife.
The 18 counties that encompass Greater Yellowstone are growing rapidly; the population of Bozeman, for one, has exploded by more than 50 percent since 2010, making it among the fastest-growing small cities in the country.
What can we do about this growing crisis? For
starters, we need to redouble our commitment to wildlife crossings and roadside
fencing, which allow animals to continue on their journeys and protect drivers
by averting dangerous crashes. Crossings and fences have repeatedly proved
their worth in Greater Yellowstone.
Along a mule deer and pronghorn migration corridor near
Pinedale, Wyoming, six underpasses, two overpasses and fencing have reduced animal collisions
by more than 80 percent and facilitated tens of thousands of
successful crossings.
New federal funding has helped: The Wildlife Crossings
Pilot Program, a $350 million grant initiative included in the 2021 Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law, has
already allocated funding for safe passage on I-90 and U.S.
93 in Montana, and Highway 189 in Wyoming. Earlier this year, the Montana
Department of Transportation applied
for federal dollars to build crossings on Highway 191 just
south of Gallatin Gateway, and a coalition called Yellowstone Safe Passages has
identified
wildlife hotspots on Highway 89 in the Paradise Valley that
would also benefit from WCPP funding. The program’s future under the Trump
Administration is uncertain, but hopefully Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, Montana Rep.
Ryan Zinke, and other Republicans who have historically promoted
wildlife-friendly laws and policies continue to lend their support to safe
passage.
Near Pinedale, Wyoming, six underpasses, two overpasses and fencing have reduced animal collisions by more than 80 percent and facilitated tens of thousands of successful crossings.
While building new wildlife crossings is a vital step
forward, it isn’t by itself sufficient. We can’t install crossings everywhere,
and, for all their value, they don’t address every problem that infrastructure
creates, particularly the explosion of development that often accompanies
expanded road networks. Along with crossings, therefore, we need to emphasize
two additional priorities.
First, we must more thoughtfully control development
to prevent sprawl from encroaching upon our wildlands. The unmanaged growth of
subdivisions both induces more traffic and devours wildlife habitat; per one 2016 study in the scientific journal
Global Change Biology, increased residential
housing density is
more harmful to mule deer fawn survival than even oil and gas wells.
Fortunately, local governments can curtail these conflicts. In Chaffee County,
Colorado, for instance, county commissioners recently adopted an updated land-use
code that restricts development in high-quality wildlife habitat; requires
meaningful setbacks from streams and wetlands; encourages clustered building patterns
and minimum lot sizes to maintain open space; and prevents the construction of
ecologically damaging new roads.
In Greater Yellowstone,
groups such as the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance,
Friends of Park County (Montana), and Valley Advocates for Responsible
Development (Teton County, Idaho) are working to incorporate conservation in
community growth. Zoning and land-use codes may not be the world’s most
glamorous subjects, but they’re among our best tools for ensuring responsible
development and securing the future of wildlife.
Second, we need to reconsider how we build and operate
our highways. Historically, highway departments within the GYE, as everywhere,
have emphasized building more highways with wider footprints and faster traffic—a
trend that continues today, with the proposed expansion of Highway 22 from
Jackson to the Snake River from two lanes to four or more, among other
projects. Wildlife crossings can make such roadways less harmful, but nothing makes a highway ecologically
benign.
In addition to crossings, then, let’s also adopt other
wildlife-friendly principles. For example, engineering roads with lower “design
speeds”—think more sinuosity and fewer wide, flat straightaways, akin to many park
roads—quells driver speed much more effectively than merely posting lower speed
limits. In residential areas, simple traffic-calming measures such as speed
bumps, traffic circles and narrower lanes effectively tamp vehicle velocity.
(In Crested Butte, strategically arranged flower planters on side streets
simultaneously curtail speed and beautify streets.)
Most of all, we need fewer cars on our roads, a
reduction we can only achieve through a major commitment to commuter buses.
Let’s follow the lead of communities like Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, where
once-exploding traffic rates have roughly
stabilized since the 2013 introduction of a Bus
Rapid Transit system, the first such rural route in the
nation, between Aspen and Glenwood
Springs. Our national parks, too,
need to be partners in this effort. Park units such as Denali, Zion and Glacier
have replaced hundreds of thousands of private car trips with public shuttles;
there’s no reason that Yellowstone and Grand Teton can’t do the same.
The opportunity to share the land with wildlife is
part of why we live in the West—a connection epitomized by our adoration for Bear
399 and her cubs. Few issues have broader public support in our region than
safe passage: In most western states, the
overwhelming majority of residents want more
wildlife crossings. Teton County voters in 2019 decisively approved an
excise tax to raise
some $10 million for passages, and in the coming years the county plans to
construct additional crossings and fences in several key locations, including north of
Jackson on Highway 89.
Now we also need to muster the political will to slow
traffic, reduce the crush of vehicles clogging our mountain towns, and curb the
breakneck development fracturing our ecosystems. We can’t bring back 399, but
we still might be able to save her wild brethren.
Photographer Charlie Lansche contributed images for this piece. Visit LastChanceGallery.com to see more of his work.
Related Stories
May 23, 2024
Grizzly Hunting is Trophy Hunting
In this op-ed, a former Yellowstone park ranger turned independent grizzly
bear researcher writes that states will institute grizzly bear hunting if
grizzlies...
June 18, 2024
Wyoming Road Failure Reveals Housing Crisis
Writers on the Range contributor Molly Absolon looks at the Teton Pass highway catastrophe and its impact on Jackson and its...
June 20, 2024
A Bill to Ban Wildlife Whacking
On the
heels of a Wyoming man torturing and killing a wolf, a Texas Republican announces introduction of a bill to outlaw...