Predicting Grizzly Bear foods, huckleberries in the Columbia Basin

This project will expand on a previous project that accurately predicted Grizzly Bears most important regional food resource (huckleberries) across most of the Columbia Basin. During 2013-2016, an accurate predictive model was developed for huckleberry patches important to Grizzly Bears in the south Selkirk and Purcell Mountains. This project will expand that model into the east Kootenay and north Columbia, the Central Purcell and Selkirks, and the Valhalla and Granby regions. This project’s huckleberry patch model is already being used by resource managers to plan timber harvest and protect important berry patches through access controls. There is a strong demand for this model to be expanded regionally for these same purposes.

Update: 1,179 potential huckleberry sites visited

Predicting the location of huckleberry patches important to Grizzly Bears is key to habitat protection. In an FWCP-funded project, 1,179 potential huckleberry sites were visited—including 332 in 2019—and 768 were found to be used by Grizzly Bears. This dataset was used to create predictive modelling to apply to the East Kootenay, North Columbia, Central Purcell, Selkirks, Valhalla, and Granby regions to support local Grizzly habitat.