(Flathead) Highway 93 is a major source of traffic related bear deaths in the region, but in 2023 tribes from the Flathead Reservation received a nearly 9 million dollar grant from the federal government to build an overpass for wildlife.
At least 19 grizzly bears have been killed on Highway 93 since 2010, which makes up around a third of all grizzly deaths in the region.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is currently reviewing whether grizzlies in the Northern Divide still need Endangered Species Act protections. The lack of movement and breeding between recovery zones was central to a federal court decision in 2018 that halted the government’s previous plans to propose delisting them.
