The Vital Ground Foundation

Environmental ServicesMontana, United States11-50 Employees

Operating as a land trust, the mission of Vital Ground is to protect and restore North America’s grizzly bear populations for future generation by conserving wildlife habitat and supporting programs that reduce conflicts between bears and humans.

Vital Ground believes the grizzly bear, as an umbrella species, is one of nature's barometers of a healthy and complete ecosystem. Because the grizzly's home range covers several hundred square miles—from alpine meadows to valley bottoms—protecting grizzly habitat benefits entire plant and animal communities in the wildest, most scenic, places left on the continent.

Grizzly and other brown bear populations persist only in the continent's last wilderness ecosystems. Between, within, and at the edges of these ecosystems, roads and development are rapidly filling open lands and valley floors, frittering away once wild landscapes and creating "habitat fracture zones." 

Habitat links between these wild grizzly sanctuaries—lands that provide food, shelter and security for seasonal foraging and movement—are the crux of grizzly survival and recovery. Today these lands are clad in streamside willows and cottonwoods, pastures, grasslands, wet meadows, clear waters, and conifer forests—habitat for innumerable species. Tomorrow they could be peppered with homes, roads, and other developments.

This is where we target our resources and efforts. We connect and protect the wild strongholds of this inimitable place. We envision a linked landscape of open public and private lands stretching from Yellowstone into Canada. From corridors to core habitat, wildlife—be it grizzly bears, elk or hummingbirds—will have room to roam and adapt to a changing world.

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