JACKSON - Wyoming outdoor lovers can expect no new campgrounds or roads in grizzly bear habitat if a preferred plan by forest managers is moved forward later this year.

Managers from six national forests around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks have narrowed down choices on how to provide habitat for the Ursus arctos horribilis that will protect the grizzly and maintain its numbers into the future.

The preferred plan released Monday calls for no new grazing allotments to be issued, for sheep allotments to be phased out in the bear's primary recovery area, and for no new roads or campgrounds to be built without others being closed.

"We are going to maintain habitat at the 1998 levels," Dave Cawrse, team leader for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement said. "That's the first year recovery criteria was met. It's a good benchmark. The bear recovered successfully with that quality and quantity of habitat in place."

Recovery criteria met in 1998 saw grizzlies inhabiting the required areas within the recovery zone with cubs and yearlings, and mortality levels did not exceed 4 percent of the population.

Another requirement is states must have an acceptable management plan in place, which Wyoming - along with Idaho and Montana - does.

The ultimate goal is to maintain the current number of grizzlies - about 500 - in and around Yellowstone. Wyoming's management plan calls for hunting of the bear as trophy game.

Forest managers' preferred plan comes directly from a Conservation Strategy developed in 2003 by a consortium of players including the Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey and Fish and Wildlife Service.

Management requirements will affect lands in the Primary Conservation Area (PCA) for the grizzly. That land falls in a radius around Yellowstone and incorporates about 3.5 million acres - acres considered crucial for maintaining the bear's numbers.

"If we build a new road we have to close something else," Cawrse said. "Roads are the things that change secure habitats."

The six national forests looking to adopt the plan are the Bridger-Teton, Shoshone, Caribou-Targhee, Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Custer and Gallatin.

Meredith Taylor with the Wyoming Outdoor Council said the plan needs "teeth" to ensure habitat will not be lost.

"There needs to be some specific land set aside," she said. "What we don't want to see is just because there's a cattle depredation that a grizzly is killed or a wolf is killed."

Taylor also said the proposal to swap out lands if a road is developed in one area is flawed, as the bear needs an established secure area.

Ranchers have said the bear has enough habitat and is even extending into areas where some in the counties do not want the animal - such as Fremont and Sublette counties. They also have said efforts to protect the bear have taken precedence over human needs.

Other alternatives examined in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement include no action - which would prevent the bear from being removed from federal protection - increasing habitat restrictions in the PCA, and increasing habitat restrictions in an area larger than the PCA.

Forest managers have already made strides to protect the bear by implementing food storage orders, aimed at reducing the number of bears conditioned to human food.

In 2003, there were an estimated 500 to 600 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Area. This is nearly triple the number estimated in the area when the bear was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1975.

Cawrse said the draft was written before the Bush administration made steps to repeal the roadless rule, but the team didn't have time to rewrite the document incorporating that new information.

He said forests would have to follow the plan that dictates if an area is opened to road building, other roads must be closed.

There are 73 cattle and 15 sheep allotments in the PCA as of 1998.

Five public open houses are scheduled for September. They are: Sept. 8 in Cody in the EOC room at the County Courthouse; Sept. 9 in Alpine at the Alpine Civic Center; Sept. 14 in Idaho Falls at the Conference Room in the Caribou-Targhee headquarters; and Sept. 15 in Bozeman at the Holiday Inn.

All meetings are from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

There will also be an open house Sept. 16 in Billings at the Custer Supervisor's office from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A copy of the DEIS is available within the Conservation Strategy at www.fs.fed.us/r1/wildlife/igbc/Subcommittee/yes/Yeamend/gb_internet.htm.

Public comments are being accepted about the draft through Nov. 12.

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.