Community Bear Assessment

The Methow Valley Community Bear Assessment identifed areas of current and potential human-bear conflict within the Methow Valley and outlined next steps for fostering human-bear coexistence. This was published by Home Range Wildlife Research in partnership with Defenders of Wildlife in 2024, and serves to:

1) provide relevant background on bear biology, habitat use, and historic human-bear conflict in the Methow Valley

2) identify challenges and opportunies as they relate to human-bear coexistence in the context of residential development, anthropogenic food sources, and solid waste management

3) outline needs and cost estimates to guide future human-bear coexistence work in the Methow

The Methow Bear Coaliton was formalized to carry out the work outlined in this assessment.