Most of the wild and plant life Lewis and Clark mapped in the now, Montana Rockies have survived, with the exception of wild buffalo. Grizzlies, wolves,cougars, moose and elk are some of the animals indigenous and free ranging along the Rocky Mountain Front. In addition to wildlife, the Rocky Mountain Front is an alpine habitat supporting rare plants, "including two species that occur nowhere else on earth."(See Resources, Nature Conservancy) What will the next two hundred years, even the next twenty years, hold for these and so many other life forms in the region? Threats to habitat press on.
Male grizzly bears, for example, range up to 250 miles. Meanwhile ranchers struggle in tough economic times. If Montana ranchers begin to sell of their lands in parcels to developers, subdivisions will create a sudden and dangerous conflict between human beings and grizzly bears. The raw power of the grizzly will never win against human interlopers. Look to the south, to the Colorado Rockies. Development along the Front Range and the Western Slope is unabated. Bears, mountain lions and coyotes are in conflict with residents in subdivisions on a weekly basis. The animals are either displaced beyond the reaches of their young or they are euthanized.
