Map from the AWL GIS Lab

In 2001, a male grizzly bear wandered into the Ninemile Valley of west-central Montana. He rummaged through garbage cans at houses and camps in the area, crossed the Clark Fork River and Interstate 90 a few times, and finally ended up on someone’s front porch in the small town of Alberton. This last event earned him a death sentence after he was deemed habitualized to people. If the grizzly had continued south, he would have soon reached the vast Salmon-Selway ecosystem — a prime habitat believed to be devoid of grizzly bears.

The Ninemile Valley has been a challenge for more than just grizzly bears. Well-known author Rick Bass chronicled the troubles a local wolf pack experienced in his book titled “The Ninemile Wolves.”

In the last few years, several black bears have been killed trying to cross Interstate 90. In addition, a well-worn game trail leads ungulates to an animal-vehicle collision hot-spot at the base of Cayuse Hill, also on I-90.

What makes these wildlife losses particularly troubling is that, according to American Wildlands’ analysis of the region’s most important wildlife corridors, the Ninemile area is one of the best corridors linking the Crown of the Continent ecosystem to the northeast, the vast protected lands of Idaho’s Salmon-Selway ecosystem, and the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem to the northwest.

It is a critical corridor for animal movement—but one that is highly complicated by a major highway, a railroad, and by rapidly developing private lands.

AWL Project Update: In 2007, with continued support from AWL, the citizen-led Ninemile Wildlife Workgroup (northwest of Missoula, Montana): [1] received a grant to help fund wildlife movement survey work and a student wildlife inventory project; [2] erected eight motorist road signs ("Watch for Wildlife") in key wildlife crossing locations on country roads; and [3] distributed bear-resistant garbage containers to residents to reduce human/wildlife conflicts.

Read more about AWL and the Ninemile workgroup's success.