After years of discussion, BNSF has a griz plan

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has approved a BNSF Railway plan that will provide funding for grizzly bear conservation in northwest Montana in return for a permit allowing it to “take” 19 of the federally protected animals over seven years.

The Habitat Conservation Plan approved by USFWS has been years in the making and comes after more than 60 bears were killed along the tracks in northwest Montana over the last 15 years. At the core of the plan is a collaboration between BNSF, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and Montana’s Outdoor Legacy Foundation.

BNSF, the largest freight railroad in the United States, will provide $2.9 million to hire seasonal FWP grizzly bear technicians, install monitoring equipment like radio collars and remote cameras, and clean up waste (most notably spilled grain) that attracts bears to the tracks.

“This plan represents a significant partnership and step forward in our continued efforts to bolster grizzly bear recovery and conservation in northwest and north-central Montana,” said FWP Director Christy Clark in a press release. “Funding from BNSF will support boots on the ground and benefit public safety and grizzly bears. We commend BNSF Railway for working with us on this plan.”

The money will predominantly support conservation efforts in an area called the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, including parts of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National and Flathead and Kootenai national forests.

BNSF and its precessors, Burlington Northern and Great Northern, have run trains through the area continuously since 1892, and the route is among the busiest rail lines in the country.

After a series of bear deaths in the late 1980s, Burlington Northern formed the Great Northern Environmental Stewardship Area to find ways to reduce the number of bears hit and killed by trains.

A key part of that effort was to quickly clean up grain spilled in derailments. Spilled grain got wet and fermented, attracting bears to the right of way.

Just last fall, a BNSF train derailed near Essex, spilling hundreds of tons of grain and briefly closing the rail line that connects the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. In that instance, the railroad used its “Rapid Response Protocol” to clean up the spill, and according to the conservation plan published this week, no bears have been killed at the site.

In 2004, 2020 and 2023, BNSF requested incidental “take” permits in return for conservation funding; essentially, the railroad wanted any train-caused fatalities of the endangered species to be legal. The permit issued this week allows the railroad to kill up to 19 grizzly bears over seven years, including nine females. The permit area is limited to the 206 miles of railroad between Shelby and Brimstone (west of Whitefish).

Along with funding for conflict response and reduction, BNSF will support education and outreach efforts, including events and information about living and recreating safely in bear country.

“BNSF is grateful for the insight provided by stakeholders in this process,” said John Lovenburg, BNSF vice president of environment and sustainability, in a press release. “We look forward to working with federal, tribal and state government partners and Montana’s Outdoor Legacy Foundation to ensure the effective implementation of the measures set out in the HCP, as well as the permit issued by USFWS.”

Conservation groups, including those that sued BNSF in 2023 over bear fatalities, expressed “cautious optimism” this week after the plan was released.

“The BNSF Railway runs right alongside Glacier National Park, some of the most prime grizzly habitat in the world, so we are hopeful risks to grizzlies will be lessened,” said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project in a press release. “We are disappointed, however, that speed reductions aren’t part of the BNSF conservation package. The railroad slows down for human safety and ought to do that for grizzly safety as well.”

Trains generally travel at speeds between 25 and 79 miles per hour in the area, depending on grade and curvature. 

The conservation plan noted that speed reductions were considered but ultimately dismissed because there was not enough evidence connecting bear fatalities to train speed, noting that bears have been killed in rail yards where the speed limit is 10 miles per hour. The report also stated that reducing speed would result in less fuel efficacy.