COEUR D’ALENE – A Missoula, Mont.-based land trust has bought 57 acres of grizzly bear habitat in northern Idaho’s Bismark Meadows.
The recent purchase by the Vital Ground Foundation gives it 160 acres in the area.
The 1,100 Bismark Meadows is a meadows and wetland complex that is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Selkirk grizzly bear recovery area.
The acquisition by the Vital Ground Foundation protects nearly a quarter-mile of Reeder Creek. Officials say a private seller donated a significant portion of the land’s value.
Up to eight grizzlies use Bismark Meadows in the spring. Last year a sow and two cubs as well as an adult male were seen in the meadows.
Vital Ground Executive Director Gary Wolfe says the purchase will protect the land from encroaching development.