The Citizen Management Alternative recognizes that while grizzly presence may be appropriate for some private lands, it is not appropriate for others. For instance, due to high human occupancy, grizzlies that wander onto private lands in the Bitterroot valley would be subject to high risk of mortality as well as intolerance from local landowners. Therefore, the proposal states that any bears that wander onto these private lands will be captured and returned to the wilderness. The Citizen Management Committee will be responsible for evaluating whether other private lands should be similarly designated as areas where bear use is incompatible with existing human uses. At the same time, the Citizen Management Committee may develop reasonable accommodations for long-term occupancy of private lands where bears appear consistently.
Current plans call for the reintroduction of four to six bears per year for up to five years.
It may take more than fifty years to develop a population of even two hundred bears. British Columbia, a province that provided wolves for Yellowstone, will also likely be asked to provide some grizzlies for the Selway-Bitterroot. The current reintroduction plan calls for five grizzlies to be reintroduced into the area every year for a period of five years. Yet the grizzly bear has the slowest reproduction rate among North American land mammals. A female grizzly first bears young at 5 to 8 years of age.