The decision whether to return grizzly bears to the Bitterroot Mountains along the Montana-Idaho border has been made and the summer's wildfires had no direct bearing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's grizzly bear recovery coordinator said Wednesday. The final decision will likely be released within two or three weeks, said Chris Servheen. The agency has delayed release of the decision because of the wildfires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the Bitterroot this summer, mostly to reflect sensitivity to human concerns, said Laird Robinson, a public affairs officer for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Servheen said the fires ultimately will benefit wildlife. The immediate effects are the vegetation losses.
Fires kill shrubs and trees.
They have the immediate effect of displacing bears. But in the long term, fires often produce more food for bears, he said. That's beneficial to many species of wildlife. Dead trees fall over and become homes for ants and insects, which bears eat. You get this lush growth of grass, then shrubs come up.