Feds to explore delisting of Greater Yellowstone and NCDE grizzlies

 

Gov. Greg Gianforte celebrated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s initial finding while environmentalists cast doubt on the state’s ability to manage the Montana state animal.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday that it is exploring whether grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems are sufficiently recovered to no longer be considered as an endangered species.

The agency’s announcement was welcomed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and other Republican officials, who’ve long sought to restore management of grizzly bears to state agencies. Environmental and conservation groups expressed wariness at the development, questioning whether state management would sustain a healthy, stable population of grizzlies and arguing that the USFWS is not meeting the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. 

The agency’s decision was initiated by a trio of delisting petitions submitted to the federal government in recent years, including a 2021 petition the state of Montana filed under Gov. Greg Gianforte’s leadership. The USFWS said two of those petitions presented “substantial information” that NCDE and Yellowstone grizzlies “may qualify as distinct population segments and warrant removal from the federal government’s list of endangered and threatened species.” 

A third petition, seeking the delisting of grizzlies across the Lower 48, did not present “substantial, credible information to warrant further action,” the agency said...more

Wanted: grizzly bear conflict manager – grappling with bears not required

 If you are fed up of a mundane desk job, aren’t bothered by austere conditions and have an affection for the hirsute, a potentially ideal new role has opened up in Montana: a grizzly bear conflict manager.

For a salary between $79,363 and $103,176, the US government is offering one lucky applicant the chance to spend time in the Montana wilderness, dealing with discord within the world of grizzly bears.

The disputes aren’t between ursine combatants themselves – although territorial quarrels do occur – but in the friction between bears and humans. While grizzly attacks on people are exceptionally rare, farmers can become agitated if a bear preys on livestock, while residents have raised concerns over bears tearing their way into their garbage, seeking tasty morsels.

The job, listed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, involves managing a team of two to four, with tasks including “trapping, chemical immobilization, monitoring, conflict prevention and relocation efforts”...MORE

Search Continues For Grizzly Who Ripped Woman Out of Tent And Killed Her + video report

 A full-on search continued on Wednesday for a grizzly bear in Montana who dragged a 65-year-old woman out of her tent in the middle of the night and killed her.

But after two days of intensive search efforts, including the use of helicopters and infrared technology, the bear has escaped without a trace.

Terrifying details of the attack emerged on Wednesday when Montana wildlife authorities and law enforcement personnel discussed the events which led up to the fatal attack of Leah Davis Lokan of Chico, California.

According to the Powell County, Montana, Sheriff’s Office, three campers were spending the night in the town of Ovando, Montana, inside their tents outside of a local museum.

At approximately 3 a.m., a 400-pound male grizzly awakened the campers but ran away.

The campers removed food from their tents and secured it in an area designated for food storage before going back to bed.

A security camera at a local business a block away captured footage of the bear at 3:15 a.m.

Fifteen minutes later, two people in a tent were awakened by screams as the grizzly returned and pulled the victim out of her tent.

The campers sprayed the grizzly with bear spray, causing it to retreat.

At 4:14 a.m., the sheriff’s office received it first 911 call regarding the attack.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Here is the AP video report:

https://youtu.be/xF71ojDPzDQ

Saving the Last Cattle Drive

Sean Paige

...I was there in June with MSLF colleagues to see the famed Upper Green River Drift, believed to be America’s oldest and longest-running cattle drive. It didn’t disappoint. There it was, like something out of the movies—a mooing mass of cattle plodding along, with whistling cowboys and tireless cattle dogs in pursuit. But it’s not a movie set. It’s not a historic reenactment. It’s the real deal, an honest-to-goodness, good old-fashioned cattle drive, still alive and kicking up dust in the 21st century American West.

...It also takes a master logistician to pull off a cattle drive of this scale. Involved are roughly 6,000 cattle, belonging to a dozen different families or “outfits,” some of whom have been doing this annually since the 1890s. Cattle must be nudged, prodded, and cajoled up to 80 miles. It’s a long but gradual march, done in phases, usually in the cool of the morning. Driving the animals too far in the heat of the day would harm them. The herds and their mounted handlers cross a patchwork of public and private lands, using a network of overpasses, bridges, trails, and roads, paved and primitive. Some outfits are moving cattle for 12 to 14 days, depending on conditions. Those traveling the farthest can spend nearly a month on The Drift, before the livestock reach the summer allotments.

There the animals will be watched through the summer months by range riders, who keep predators at bay, as best they can, and move them from pasture to pasture to avoid overgrazing. When summer turns to fall, the process is reversed, as cattle “drift” back to lower elevations, instinctively prodded by the oncoming winter. There they are gathered, counted, sorted, and in some cases shipped to market.

Sadly, today’s ranchers also need to have familiarity with laws and courts, given how frequently public lands disputes and other matters of life or death to a cattle outfit can end in litigation. That’s what brought MSLF lawyers and our rancher-clients together on this June weekend—a court case, which could impact the fate not just of these ranchers, but of all ranchers who rely on public lands grazing.

The case, Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhadt, could determine whether ranchers and federally protected grizzly bears can continue to coexist on the federal grazing allotments where these herds are headed. At issue is whether documented problem bears can be removed by the state of Wyoming, when repeated cases of predation occur, as has been the accepted practice since the 1970s. Otherwise these lands will essentially become a grizzly bear buffet, where open season is declared on domestic livestock and ranchers can figuratively and literally be eaten out of house and homestead.

The balance between profit and loss, survival or financial ruin, has always been precarious for ranchers. But the growing toll grizzlies and wolves are taking on these ranchers, and the determined efforts of organized antigrazing groups to use grizzly protection as a pretext for running them off their federal allotments, is pushing some families to the brink. This at a time when they confront a host of COVID-19-related supply chain challenges.

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Grizzly Euthanized After Killing Cattle

A grizzly bear was euthanized after killing a cow on private land in Montana last week. According to a news release from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the adult male bear was captured shortly after it killed the cow on July 29. In consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the decision was made to euthanize the bear due to this depredation and past livestock kills in the area. Relocating bears safely at this time of year is difficult due to many factors, including high bear densities, heavy recreation use and other land usage in nearby areas, the department said. This is the second management removal of a grizzly bear this year within the demographic monitoring area of Montana’s portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The first grizzly bear removed in this area in 2020 was captured and transferred to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone after gaining access to food at campgrounds in the Rainbow Point area...MORE

Hiker Surprises Grizzly Bear; Grizzly Bear Flattens Hiker

It’s starting to feel like if there’s not a bear attack to report on every day, something’s awry. Thankfully, Wyoming skirmishes with bears this summer have not been fatal, including an incident reported Tuesday south of Cody. The circumstances seem to follow a pattern. An individual was hiking alone on Deer Creek Pass in Shoshone National Forest and surprised a grizzly bear. Not surprisingly, the grizzly did not take kindly to the surprise and charged the hiker. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported the grizzly knocked the hiker to the ground and took off. “The victim sustained injuries to his chest and arm, but was able to bandage his wounds and hike out,” the department said. The hiker was picked up by Game and Fish personnel and taken to the hospital...MORE

Kalispell woman collides with grizzly on running trail

A 30-year-old Kalispell woman ran into a younger grizzly bear while trail running on Huckleberry Lookout Trail, on Saturday morning. She was running the trail with friends, and was a head of them when the bear and her collided. The bear reportedly ran away afterwards. running trail items.[0].image.alt By: MTN News Posted at 4:11 PM, Jul 11, 2020 and last updated 4:28 PM, Jul 11, 2020 A 30-year-old Kalispell woman ran into a younger grizzly bear while trail running on Huckleberry Lookout Trail, on Saturday morning. She was running the trail with friends, and was a head of them when the bear and her collided. The bear reportedly ran away afterwards. Recent Stories from kpax.com The woman transported herself to Kalispell Regional Medical Center for treatment and evaluation. She had minor, non-life-threatening injuries to the head and arm. Rangers checked the scene and determined it was a surprise encounter with no further issues. No other reports of the bear or additional encounters have happened on the trail. Rangers posted there was a bear sighting, but have not closed the trail. Visitors to Glacier National Park are reminded that the park is home to black and grizzly bears, and discourage trail running in order to protect the public and bears...MORE

Ninth Circuit upholds Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Montana District Court decision reinstating Endangered Species Act protections for the grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone region. In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared grizzly bears a “distinct population segment” and attempted to remove the species from protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This decision was subsequently challenged, and the court held that further agency consideration was necessary to remove the species from the list. The court’s decision to remand resulted in a second delisting attempt of the species in 2017, which the district court also vacated. The FWS appealed “those aspects of the remand that require the study of the effect of the delisting on the remaining, still listed, grizzly population in the coterminous 48 states, as well as further consideration of the threat of delisting to long term genetic diversity of the Yellowstone grizzly.” In its decision handed down Wednesday, the court stated: “We affirm the district court in all respects, with the exception of the order requiring the FWS to conduct a ‘comprehensive review’ of the remnant grizzly population. As to that order, we remand for the district court to order further examination of the delisting’s effect on the remnant grizzly population consistent with this opinion.”.LINK

Interior kills grizzly reintroduction plan for North Cascades

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has terminated plans to reintroduce grizzly bears into the North Cascades Ecosystem of northern Washington, one of six areas designated for recovery of the threatened species. “The Trump Administration is committed to being a good neighbor, and the people who live and work in north central Washington have made their voices clear that they do not want grizzly bears reintroduced into the North Cascades,” Bernhardt said in a statement released on Tuesday. “Grizzly bears are not in danger of extinction, and Interior will continue to build on its conservation successes managing healthy grizzly bear populations across their existing range.” Bernhardt made the announcement during a meeting in Omak, Washington, on Tuesday. He credited Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, with leading the objections to grizzly reintroduction. “This announcement is welcomed by my constituents in Central Washington who have consistently shared my same concerns about introducing an apex predator into the North Cascades," Newhouse said in the same press release.“Homeowners, farmers, ranchers, and small business owners in our rural communities were loud and clear: We do not want grizzly bears in North Central Washington.”...MORE

Judge: No evidence of ‘certain and great harm’ to grizzlies

A judge shared his reasoning Friday on why he refused to halt the killing of grizzly bears, killings that protect a historic Wyoming cattle drive and ranching operation on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Conservation organizations presented no evidence wildlife managers will remove more female cattle-eating grizzlies from federal Sublette County grazing allotments if he doesn’t immediately step in, U.S. District Judge Amit P Mehta said. Cowboys and –girls drove hundreds of cattle on the Green River Drift last week under a new federal 10-year plan that allows the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears over that period. The conservation groups sued the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and others claiming the grazing plan violated the Endangered Species Act, among other laws, in part because it did not limit the removal or killing of female grizzly bears. Protected by the ESA, female grizzlies are a key component of the Yellowstone ecosystem population in question. The conservation groups sought an injunction to immediately stop the killings and removals. But the nonprofits Western Watersheds Project, Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, and Alliance for the Wild Rockies “have not offered evidence of a ‘certain and great’ harm that is ‘likely to occur,’” while the case wends its way through court, Mehta wrote. In past years, an average of 0.7 female grizzly bears a year have been removed from the Upper Green River grazing area, the judge wrote. That suggests “the taking of more than one or two female bears during the pendency of this case is unlikely to occur.” The conservationists did not convince the judge “that the killing of a single member of a threatened species constitutes irreparable harm, especially where, as here, the grizzly bear population has been growing for years,” Mehta wrote. Western Watersheds Project said in a Facebook post that “Justice for grizzly bears in the Upper Green will have to wait for another day. Our lawsuit will now proceed toward a ruling on the merits.”...MORE

Wildlife Officials Discuss COVID-19's Impact On Grizzly Bears

As bear activity is picking up across northwest Montana, grizzly bear managers are juggling the uncertain and unexpected impacts of COVID-19 on wild places. On Friday, state, federal and tribal wildlife officials met remotely over Zoom for their semi-annual meeting. The group discussed how to manage the largest grizzly populations in the lower 48 states – the bears in and around Glacier National Park. Glacier National Park superintendent Jeff Mow reported last year was the second busiest on record for tourists in the park. “This year’s gonna look very, very different,” he said. The park is gearing up for a limited reopening. He expects local, Montana-based tourism to flow in, while visitors from far away will likely stay closer to home. It means a far lower human impact on wildlife than the park has seen for decades. “I don’t know what it means for grizzly bears,” Mow said. But officials said the national park’s closure has pushed more recreationists – and, potentially, their impacts on grizzlies - to other public lands. Kurt Steele is superintendent of Flathead National Forest. “We definitely are seeing an increased use, at least the Flathead National Forest ,compared to this time of year normally,” he said. Randy Arnold, regional supervisor at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the same is true on state land...MORE

Grizzly bear critically injures bicyclist near Big Sky

A grizzly bear attacked and critically injured a man mountain biking near Big Sky on Monday. Local authorities got a report of the bear attack just after 1 p.m. on Monday, said Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Morgan Jacobsen. A man in his 60s was mountain biking alone on a trail on private property in the Spanish Peaks Community just above Ousel Falls Park Trail near Big Sky. Initial investigations from FWP show that its likely the mountain biker surprised the grizzly bear after rounding a sharp corner on the trail. "It does not look like a predatory attack," Jacobsen said. The biker was able to escape the bear and walked to the South Fork Road where he got help from a passing motorist, Jacobsen said. He wasn't sure how far the mountain biker had to walk to get help. The man was airlifted to a Billings hospital and is in critical but stable condition, Jacobsen said. He sustained injuries to his face and back...MORE

Grizzly Bear Death Rates Are Climbing

The long freight trains climb slowly over Marias Pass, through snow-draped mountains south of Glacier National Park and north of the Great Bear Wilderness, snaking through some of the wildest country in the Lower 48. Some 25 trains a day, each a chain of 90 to 120 cars, make the journey over the Rocky Mountains in northern Montana at speeds up to 25 miles per hour. They have long been a threat to grizzly bears, and last year was the worst with eight of the bears — a federally protected species — run over by trains. On one day in June, a mother and her two cubs were killed by trains in two separate incidents. The long-term average for grizzly deaths by train is two a year. The death rate of grizzlies in this region has been rising, attributed not only to trains, but to poaching, cars and the removal of troublesome bears. In 2018, a record number — 51 — were killed in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, millions of acres in and around Glacier Park. And last year, 51 bears were killed. In 2017, just 29 bears were killed or euthanized. At the same time, though, the region’s population of grizzly bears has come roaring back to a high of 1,051 from a low of about 350 to 400, when they were listed in 1975 as a threatened species. Some experts say the increase in mortality is a reflection of the fact that more bears are roaming in far more places than they used to, and argue that, so far, these higher death rates are not a threat to the species...MORE

Panel abandons griz depredation comp model, awards ranch $339K

An arbitration panel ruled Jan. 27 that Wyoming Game and Fish Department should pay a Hot Springs County rancher $339,927 for stock killed by grizzly bears and mountain lions, almost four times the offer that Wyoming Game and Fish Commission regulations allowed. The judgment for Josh Longwell of the HD Ranch outside Thermopolis came to 80% of the $422,971 damage claim he submitted to the state wildlife agency. The Game and Fish Department and commission had awarded Longwell $89,498 for the loss of dozens of cattle and sheep in 2018, a figure he appealed to the arbitration panel.  The verdict is the latest development in a 25-year clash between public wildlife values and private property rights in the Owl Creek area. The disputes involve grazing permits, claims of government overreach and the health of a prized herd of bighorn sheep, and the issue has been litigated all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court...MORE

Emaciated grizzly bears in Canada spark greater concerns over depleted salmon population

With hibernation fast approaching, a grizzly bear family is spotted searching for fish near the shores of Canada's Knight Inlet. They're emaciated. The heartbreaking images, captured by a Canadian photographer, have sparked concern from wildlife observers. They worry whether the bear and two cubs will even make it through hibernation. It also shines light on another victim of the climate crisis and the depletion of wild salmon population. Knight Inlet is a prime tourist spot in British Columbia, Canada for grizzly bear viewing. Visitors from all over the world come to take in the wilderness and admire the wildlife. The Mamalilikulla First Nation has been monitoring the bears, specifically those in Hoeya Sound and Lull Bay, for several years. "They have drastically changed within a couple months," Jake Smith, guardian watchman manager for the Mamalilikulla First Nation, told CNN. "The bears are in trouble." Smith said when he saw the images on Friday, he knew he had to try to help. The bears' main food source, salmon, is at an all time low in the area. Commercial fishermen in British Columbia are calling this the worst salmon season in nearly 50 years. In August, a report released by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada noted that Canada's climate is warming twice as fast as the global average, drastically impacting the salmon's ecosystems. The report also cited marine heatwaves, increased floods and droughts as causing greater stress on the fish...MORE

U.S. restores Yellowstone grizzlies to protected species list

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday restored federal protections to grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park, abiding by a court ruling last year that removal of the bears’ threatened status violated the Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration’s decision to “de-list” the Yellowstone grizzly, formally proposed in 2016 during the Obama era, was based on federal wildlife managers’ findings that the bear’s numbers had sufficiently rebounded in recent decades and no longer warranted federal safeguards. The move, welcomed by big-game hunters and ranchers, applied to about 700 bears in the region, and led to plans for the first licensed trophy hunts for grizzlies in areas adjacent to Yellowstone park in more than 40 years. A number of environmental groups and Native American tribes then sued in federal court seeking to overturn the decision, arguing that grizzly populations could plunge again without protection. They cited pressures that hunting and encroaching human development posed to a species that is slow to reproduce. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana, sided with the groups, ruling last September that the agency had overstepped its authority and had failed to apply the best available science in its evaluation, including ongoing threats to the bears. The Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement on Tuesday that it had employed the “best scientific and commercial data” when it de-listed the Yellowstone grizzlies, which it said had experienced robust population growth, but that it was complying with the judge’s order..MORE

I've embedded the court decision below or you can view it here.


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The federal government might reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington

The US government might reintroduce the grizzly bear to the North Cascades area in northwest Washington and has re-opened the proposal for public comment. The proposal seeks to restore the grizzly population in the ecosystem to 200. The public comment period opened Thursday and will run to October 24. It was previously open from January through April 2017. The grizzly was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in July 1975. The last time a grizzly bear was spotted on the US side of the North Cascade was in 1996, Shultz said. The Canada side had a sighting in 2012. In the US, grizzly bears are active in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. By reintroducing grizzly bears to the North Cascade, the National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service hope to avoid their permanent loss, restore biodiversity, and support recovery of the species, according to the restoration plan draft. Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned in December, endorsed the recovery and had restarted the process. He also had allowed agencies to review public comments previously received. The federal government does not have a deadline for the reintroduction, Shultz said. It will depend on how many new comments are submitted. CNN

Experts disagree on why grizzlies are ranging further afield

It’s undisputed that the number of conflicts between grizzly bears and people are on the rise in northwest Wyoming, with bears roaming further and further from their core habitat in and around Yellowstone National Park. But why the bears are spreading out of the so-called “demographic monitoring area,” or DMA, is a matter of debate. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department says the increased conflicts are a sign that the DMA is full and that bears are being pushed out into less desirable areas — such as the sow and two cubs that reached Byron last year. “The DMA was identified as a large enough tract of contiguous habitat to maintain [Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem] grizzly bears in perpetuity,” Brian Nesvik, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, told a congressional committee discussing proposed legislation called the Tribal Heritage and Grizzly Bear Protection Act earlier this month. “However, because the core of the population has nearly achieved density dependence, grizzly bear distribution has extended far beyond suitable habitats.” Some scientists and bear advocates, however, don’t see it that way. Barrie K. Gilbert, a conservation ecologist and emeritus faculty at Utah State University, told a House committee that the issue isn’t that the grizzly population is growing. Instead, he said grizzlies are expanding their territory due to a lack of food inside the suitable habitat set aside in the DMA...MORE

Feds' appeal says federal judge in Missoula overstepped in grizzly delisting case

Federal attorneys pushed their case that Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bears should be removed from Endangered Species Act protection, arguing in an appeal filed late Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wasn’t required to do a comprehensive review of all grizzlies in the Lower 48 states. The U.S. Department of Justice’s opening salvo to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also accused the lower court judge in Missoula of improperly substituting his opinion of the scientific evidence of grizzly genetic diversity for that of FWS biologists. However, the government said it would not challenge U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen’s ruling that state wildlife agencies aren’t ready to manage the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) bears and haven’t sufficiently studied how delisting one big grizzly population might affect smaller separate populations. Last September, Christensen rejected the service’s 2017 delisting rule covering about 750 grizzlies in the 9,800-square-mile Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Christensen found the plan “arbitrary and capricious” on four points:
 • inadequate explanations of how handing bears over to state management and hunting would ensure the bears’ continued survival,
• how delisting grizzlies in one recovery area might affect five other recovery populations,
• whether the Yellowstone grizzlies were too isolated to provide for genetic diversity,
• and whether the service had done a required comprehensive analysis of its delisting plan on the bears.
That left the federal government with two options. It could appeal Christensen’s ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, or go to work writing a new delisting rule that resolved the judge’s criticisms. Both efforts could take two years to complete. Friday’s government brief states the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has already started work fixing some of the problems, but also argues the delisting rule should be reinstated because the judge went too far in his opinion. “The district court erred, however, in ruling that FWS must conduct a ‘comprehensive review’ of the entire listed species, because the Act imposes no such requirement and because courts may not impose procedures not required by statute,” the brief stated. "The court further erred in substituting its scientific judgment for FWS’s on the matter of the bears’ genetic fitness, in violation of the foundational principles of judicial review of agency decision-making.”

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The appeal is embedded below or you can view it here. 

Montana women ranchers share challenges of living with grizzlies

Packing a pistol is a way of life for Trina Jo Bradley, a Dupuyer-area rancher along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front. The pistol is her protection from grizzly bears. She is on constant watch for the large bruins. “I compare it to living in a bad neighborhood in Chicago,” she said. “There’s never a time when we’re not on alert.” That includes when she takes her young daughter fishing on a nearby creek. Near YNP More than 300 miles to the south, just north of Yellowstone National Park, rancher Malou Anderson also lives with grizzly bears on the landscape, seeing them almost daily except when they are hibernating in winter. Anderson prefers to carry bear spray when working on her family’s ranch in the Tom Miner Basin. “We walk and ride differently on the landscape when we carry bear spray as opposed to a gun,” Anderson said. At certain times of the year, 10 to 15 grizzly bears will be visible on hillsides near the ranch, digging up plants to eat. Crowds of tourists will gather to photograph, sometimes trespassing, leaving litter and even flying drones over the bears. Gathering The two women spoke to a gathering of agricultural producers at a recent conference in Lewistown. Sponsored by the American Prairie Reserve, the meeting was meant to bring diverse people together from a variety of backgrounds to discuss different ways of living with wildlife. Anderson and Bradley provide contrasting approaches, attitudes and perceptions to living with grizzly bears on the edge of two of Montana’s wildest places. Yet they also share a common love of the state’s wide open spaces and a strong desire to preserve a ranching lifestyle under threat from a variety of modern challenges...MORE