The Role of Private Lands in Conserving Yellowston'e Wildlife in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Conserving Yellowstone's Wildlife 2022 241 that can reduce overall population viability). 22 Large carnivores can kill livestock and raise quality-of-life concerns, such as grizzly bears which can kill or badly injure people. 23 Large ungulates also create concerns as they may transmit costly diseases such as brucellosis, 24 compete with cattle for forage, depredate hay fields, and damage or destroy fences. 25 Fourth, some private landowners in the GYE seasonally graze livestock on nearby U.S. Forest Service (USFS) or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allotments. 26This grazing activity can have both positive (e.g., weed suppression, fire fuels reduction) 27 and negative (e.g., stream damage, increased carnivore-livestock conflict) effects on the landscape. 28 Finally, private lands in the GYE are vulnerable to fragmentation and development. 29 Landowners may even be motivated to sell or subdivide their land in response to challenges with wildlife, which fragments land, and further hinders conservation goals. 30 The need for large-scale conservation encompassing private lands in the GYE is consonant with several broader trends in ecology, conservation science, and public understanding.A large body of work conducted since the 1980s has shown the 22