Escalating development is threatening potential key grizzly bear habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Sierra Club says. Such rapid growth, unprecedented around Yellowstone, could be bad news for the grizzly bear, which requires large blocks of unbroken, undeveloped, wilderness to survive. The grizzly bear's historic range covered much of North America from the mid-plains westward to California and from central Mexico north throughout Alaska and Canada. Grizzly bears need a significant amount of wilderness space because their habitat changes throughout the year. In the spring, there are more bear conflicts with humans.
Many people confuse more bears at lower elevations with a growing bear count.
The bears do not have many options. Using development indicators, such as water well and septic permits, in conjunction with available state and county data, the report by the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project traced more than two decades of growth on private lands that represent about 20 percent of the Greater Yellowstone Eco-System in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Pages will open in a new browser window External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you.