by Micah Drew, Daily Montanan
On a Thursday in late June, a mountain biker was out for an after-work ride on the Starry Goat Trail near Troy when he encountered a bear on the trail ahead of him.
“Seeing a bear or any wildlife on the trail is really a treat,” the biker said in a video released by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “I didn’t expect it to turn into what it did, but it was very surreal.”
The cyclist said he was riding solo up the trail when he saw what he initially thought was a “weird looking root ball” on the trail ahead. He made some noise, just in case, and the “root ball” stood up, turned around, and began ambling down the trail toward him.
Dismounting his bike, the cyclist pulled out his bear spray and disengaged the safety.
Based on the physical characteristics of the bear — a hump in the shoulders, the shape of its face and size of its feet — the cyclist said he thought it was a grizzly, and yelling to scare it off was unlikely to work.
Instead, he waited until the bear approached within about 15 feet of him and discharged his bear spray.
“The bear decided to, you know, reroute and leave,” the cyclist said. “He basically ran past me … up the hill and sat with his back towards me and started pawing at his face.”
Montana FWP released the bear safety PSA on Monday, just a few days after the department launched a new interactive grizzly bear conflict dashboard, a new tool designed to better inform communities about conflicts with the species.
“Managing grizzly bear conflicts continues to be a priority for our staff and the workload is increasing every year,” FWP Director Christy Clark said in a press release. “This dashboard will help inform the public about just what kinds of conflicts Montanans are dealing with and where they’re happening.”
FWP said the dashboard is “updated regularly, but not until after the conclusion of a conflict.”
There are 61 listed conflicts with 72 grizzly bears logged for 2025 so far.
Most recently were two reported interactions with humans on July 11, one in the Whitefish Range and one near Livingston.
FWP said in a press release that as grizzly bear populations have expanded in number and distribution in Montana, they increasingly come into close contact with human civilizations — encountering humans, agricultural landscapes, livestock and often garbage and waste left on private property or on public lands.
“With this expansion comes an increased focus by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to help people and communities stay safe and avoid conflicts,” the release states. “Across Montana’s bear country, FWP staff are working hard to respond to conflicts, provide tools to landowners and communities to prevent conflicts, and to educate people on how to stay safe.”
The state agency also manages a grizzly mortality dashboard, and it’s working on launching a relocation dashboard later this year to track where problem bears with a history of conflict are moved to. Currently, the agency tracks bear, mountain lion and wolf relocation in a publicly accessible table.
The table shows four male grizzlies have been captured and released in Flathead County, three as preventive measures and one following a human conflict incident. Another grizzly has been released in Missoula County this year following a livestock conflict.
Grizzly bears remain federally protected in the Lower 48 under the Endangered Species Act, which puts them under a layered state, federal and tribal jurisdiction when conflicts arise.
For example, while the state agency is responsible for dealing with conflict issues, relocating a grizzly bear requires approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, which all have populations of grizzly bears, petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist grizzly bears from the Endangered Species List and turn management over to the states. But in a Jan. 8 decision, FWS rejected the petitions and proposed a new comprehensive approach to grizzly management.
Montana officials have long pushed for the state to take over management of the species, and U.S. Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing have cosponsored legislation in Congress that would remove the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population of grizzly bears from the list.
On Tuesday, the House Committee on Natural Resources debated that bill, the Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2025, and recommended in a 20-19 vote to pass a favorable recommendation to the full House.
