Brian Yablonski is chief executive of the Property and Environment Research Center. Blake Henning is chief conservation officer at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Both organizations are based in Montana.

Fifty years ago, when the grizzly bear was listed as a threatened species, the federal government intervened to save this iconic American animal. Its recovery is one of the nation’s signature conservation success stories: In 1975, there were at least 700 bears in the northern Rockies. Today, thanks in large part to the Endangered Species Act, there are more than 2,300, and grizzly bears are expanding their range into areas they haven’t been seen for more than a century.

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