BILLINGS, Mon. — Wildlife officials from the United States and Canada meet this week in Montana to draft a new grizzly bear recovery plan for the Northern Rockies and North Cascades.

Federal officials will join representatives of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington and their counterparts from Alberta and British Columbia for the meetings Tuesday and Wednesday in Missoula.

Tuesday's session of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee is scheduled to focus on grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone area.

An estimated 600 bears in that region of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho were returned to the endangered species list last year.

That move by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy restored federal protections for grizzlies that had been lost when the government declared them recovered in 2007.