From the Wednesday, April 25, 2007 online edition of the Great Falls Tribune . . .

Officials with state Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Tuesday the state can no longer afford to study the long-term population trend of grizzlies in northwest Montana without financial help from federal agencies.

If the monitoring abruptly ends because of the funding pinch, delisting efforts would be set back years, the FWP officials said.

“Zero chance of delisting unless we have some sort of monitoring program,” said Rick Mace, a Kalispell-based research biologist who heads the state’s monitoring efforts.

Read the entire article . . .