Paradise Valley, Montana. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Sitting between two towering mountain ranges, Montana’s Paradise Valley is aptly named. Cradling the mighty Yellowstone River that flows from Yellowstone National Park, the valley provides critical habitat to all the native species still present 200 years after Lewis and Clark’s expedition, including grizzly bears, wolves, and wolverines.

In recent decades, grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem have experienced a drastic decline in two of their main food sources, whitebark pine nuts and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. That’s led to an increase in meat consumption by grizzly bears, including livestock that continue to be grazed in areas where conflict is virtually certain.

It’s well-known that new born calves make an easy and irresistible meal for hungry grizzly bears just waking up from their long winter hibernation. In fact, that’s the primary reason cattle are normally not allowed to graze on Montana’s national forests until July.

Yet, ignoring both the........

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