Mostly Natural
GRIZZLIES
Of the Northern Rocky Mountains
For everything on the politics and policy of grizzly bear conservation
go to Grizzly Times
For everything on the ecology of Ursus arctos, go to All Grizzly
Flawed Grizzly Bear Science
by Government Researchers in the Northern Rocky Mountains
Yellowstone's interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team
Yellowstone's Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) has produced numerous publications during 2006-2023 that currently comprise the basis for management of Yellowstone's grizzly bear population and habitat. Unfortunately, this corpus of research has been fatally compromised by numerous failings. In brief, IGBST researchers erroneously equated omnivory with indifference to food quality; misrepresented the abundance of a key food (whitebark pine seeds); failed to account for temporal and spatial aspects of major environmental change; failed to consider the emergent effect of dietary changes on risk of death; used a suspect measure of bear density; failed to adequately account for bias introduced by increasing search effort and sightability of bears; misconstrued the concepts of density-dependence and carrying capacity; underspecified models and hypotheses; and maintained monopolistic control over scientific inquiry in a highly politicized environment. For more details on all these problems, download a 2023 report by Dr. David Mattson entitled Flawed Science or go to the page linked at left by clicking on the image of "Flawed Science".
Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks
The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem
Research by employees of Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) currently comprises the primary basis for managing grizzly bears and grizzly bear habitat in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). As with science produced by Yellowstone's Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST), the corpus of research produced by FWP researchers has been fatally compromised by numerous failings, with these failings aggravated by a significantly limited scope of research. A summary of these failings can be found by going to the page linked to the image at left or, for more details, see a report by Dr. David Mattson entitled Heart of the Grizzly Bear Nation that can be downloaded by clicking on the image of this report on the referenced page.