The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee will be holding a public meeting at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department Cody Region Office on Wednesday and Thursday, May 10-11.

The committee supports recovery and delisting, and ongoing conservation of grizzly bear populations and their habitats in areas of the western United States through interagency coordination of policy, planning, management, research and communication.

“Grizzly bear conservation is complex and only made possible through partnerships,” according to committee literature. “IGBC members recognize and mutually respect the authorities and mandates of all parties under federal and state law.

The IGBC is a cooperative effort of its members, created in 1983. Today, despite remaining challenges in smaller recovery areas, populations are increasing in the larger recovery areas, with well over 2,200 grizzly bears estimated across four populations.

Grizzly bear populations in the two largest areas, the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, are biologically recovered, and bears have returned to portions of their historic range where they have not been present in generations. The recovery of these populations is one of the greatest conservation success stories of our time, but also creates new challenges for wildlife managers and humans that share the landscape with bears.

The group will meet 2-5:30 p.m. Wednesday and return from 8:30 a.m.-noon Thursday.