The Private Land / Public Wildlife Council focused on wildlife migration during a Dec. 2 meeting, and the conversation touched on the many challenges – wildlife, policy, agricultural, recreational, land management and safety – that accompany solutions to wildlife movement and connectivity. The PL/PW discussion included comments from ranchers like Bart Morris (landowner partner with Five Valleys Land Trust on a conservation easement), Paul McKenzie of FH Stoltz Land & Lumber (timber company that works with TPL on conservation projects) and from Cole Mannix, whose family in the Blackfoot has worked with state and federal agencies on land management solutions.

     “Personally, the big story and the big take home is that the working lands (and) the folks who own and manage lands the grizzly bears are going to be on, bear a higher proportion of burden on this question,” Mannix said. “So it’s very much related to what we’re asking PL/PW to look at…how can we better support working lands that are so critical to the wildlife in this state?