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Missoula Office
140 South Fourth St West
Suite 1
Missoula, MT 59801
Fax: (406) 542-5632
The Montana office of Defenders of Wildlife opened in 1977 to focus on wolf recovery in Yellowstone. Since then Defenders has broadened the focus to grizzly bear recovery throughout Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington. The staff in the Montana office also works on bison, swift fox, black-footed ferret and prairie dog conservation.
Defenders works primarily with local private landowners, and state, tribal and federal agencies on grizzly bear recovery in the region.
Key Projects:
Defenders of Wildlife Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund: Defenders collaborates with individuals, communities, organizations and government agencies to prevent or reduce human/bear conflicts.
Defenders of Wildlife Grizzly Bear Compensation Trust: Defenders pays ranchers to reduce the economic hardship that results when grizzly bears kill livestock.
Oversight of federal and state agency management decisions: Defenders oversees federal and state agency management decisions that may impact key species.
Bison: Defenders is working to help expand tribal and public bison herds in the northern Plains.
Swift fox: Defenders is working to help restore swift fox to tribal and public lands in the northern Plains.
Black-footed ferrets: Defenders is working to help restore and protect black-footed ferrets (and their prairie dog colony habitat) to tribal and public lands in the northern Plains.
Key Accomplishments:
- Paid over $168,000 to ranchers in compensation for grizzly bear caused livestock losses to develop tolerance for grizzly bear recovery through the Defenders of Wildlife Grizzly Bear Compensation Trust (1997-2008).
- Completed 89 on-the-ground projects totaling more than $350,000 with funding from the Defenders of Wildlife Proactive Carnivore Conservation Fund to keep grizzly bears from coming into conflict with humans and ending up dead (1999 - 2007).
- Helped craft a management plan for grizzly bears in western Montana
- Circulated 50,000 brochures with helpful tips on how to coexist with bears to rural residents (2006-2008)
- Returned bison to the Sioux and Assiniboine people of Fort Peck after an absence of 130 years (2001)
- Restored the rare swift fox to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation (1997 - 2002)
- Helped restore wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho (1995)
