The Interagency Grizzly Bear Guidelines (hereafter, "Guidelines") were ratified and signed in 1986 by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC). The IGBC is composed of representatives of each of the federal and state government agencies that manage grizzly bears and/or their habitat. A common criticism of the IGBC is that it is composed of agency administrators ("bear"ocrats) and not biologists, and that action is typically driven by politics first and biology second, if ever. The Guidelines are no exception, and many areas of bear habitat have been destroyed as a result.

The trouble with the Guidelines is that: (1) they are vastly outdated (for example, the guidelines for analyzing the impact of logging on grizzly bears is excerpted from a paper by Steve Mealey dated 1979); and (2) they are discretionary.* This said, they do contain some useful general direction for managing recovery zone habitat designated "Management Situation 1 and 2." They also contain some useful specific direction regarding the relocation or removal of nuisance bears (see Livestock section, p.7).

*[Although, despite their being just "guidelines," a ruling by Judge Lovell (Swan View v. Turner) states that any departure from the guidelines will require formal consultation with FWS!]

As an alternative to designating "critical habitat," as directed under the Endangered Species Act, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee has identified both Management Situation 1 and 2 recovery zone habitat for the grizzly bear. These were supposed to be drawn according to strict biological knowledge of grizzly bear needs and use. Instead, the recovery zone boundaries were drawn roughly around occupied habitat in the 1970's when populations were at historic lows. Thus, they do not include many areas that are heavily used by bears today, let alone areas that are unoccupied but could and should provide important habitat. Distinctions between MS1 and MS2 often follow administrative rather than biological boundaries, such as the north-south running western boundary of Yellowstone National Park.

Direction for MS1 includes, "grizzly bear habitat maintenance and improvement and grizzly-human conflict minimization will receive highest management priority" (p.3). Direction for MS2 is less strong, but does say that "management will at least maintain those habitat conditions which resulted in the area being stratified Management Situation 2"... and "In cases where the need of the habitat resources for recovery has not yet been determined, other land uses may prevail to the extent they do not result in irretrievable/irreversible resource commitments which would preclude the possibility of eventual restratification to Management Situation 1" (p.4). Revised direction for MS2 lands states: "Key habitat components in MS2 should be maintained until they are determined to be unnecessary." Basically, all this means that even though they are lower priority, MS2 lands must be protected unless it is determined that they are not essential for recovery, and will never be designated MS1.

Livestock Grazing

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Guidelines include some specific direction regarding what steps must be taken prior to relocating and/or removing grizzly bears that conflict with livestock, at least from habitat within a grizzly bear recovery zone:
1) "grizzlies must be determined a nuisance by specific criteria before they can be controlled;" and
2) "A grizzly bear may determined to be a nuisance if the following criteria are met..." (emphasis added). The relevent criteria include:
a) "The bear causes significant depredation to lawfully present livestock..."
b) Livestock (or other unnatural food materials) have been "reasonably secured from the bear."
c) "Livestock and wildlife carcasses were removed, destroyed or treated so that the material would not reasonably be expected to attract grizzlies;"
d) "Livestock use did not occur in habitat components critically important to grizzlies in time or space" (pp. 53-4).

Further, within Management Situation 1 (MS1) grizzly bear habitat, the Guidelines direct that a nuisance bear may be relocated or removed only if:
i) "such control would result in a more natural free-ranging grizzly population;" and
ii) "all reasonable measures have been taken to protect the bear and/or its habitat (including area closures and/or activity curtailments)" (p. 3, emphasis added).