Feds Want to Kick Grizzly Bear Off List

credit: www.firstpeople.us

The US Fish & Wildlife Service should be laying plans for a trans-border national park--a real land of the grizzlies--to preserve the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) population in northwest Montana instead of preparing to take an entire population of America's largest land predator off the federal Endangered Species list. Frequently America's management of wild spaces and wild creatures is backward, governed by a legacy of wild abundance. That time is gone probably never to return. This outdated attitude inspired by economic exploitation refuses to take into account the new reality of the 21st century and beyond: homo sapiens survival as a species depends on protecting and conserving remaining in-tact ecosystems and the natural processes of Earth and restoring those that have been damaged. Some conservationists refer to this enlightened approach to a sustainable planet as "rewilding"*.

The foregone conclusion of the public comment period is a post-listing management plan that will almost certainly include trophy hunting, or in Washingtonian bureaucratise, "sustainable mortality limits" for adult males. Of course the rejoinder to this criticism will be "there he goes again"--anthropomorphizing stupid beasts. US Person suggests telling that to an angry grizzly bear, pardner. The target population to be delisted is in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, the largest of six recovery zones and contiguous to a growing Canadian population of bears. In 2004 scientists estimated that there were 765 bears in this zone. Based on an estimated growth rate of 3% per year there could be 942 bears in the Northern Divide zone. But while there are more bears in this one area, there are still smaller population pockets in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk mountains that are not sustainable, and the Bitterroots are currently unoccupied. These areas need to be reconnected to bear populations which are genetically diverse and growing. As bear numbers expand, humans should be educated on how to live with an admittedly intimidating animal as a neighbor. A hugely tragic conservation mistake was made when wolves in the Northern Rockies were delisted and abandoned to slaughter by revenue starved state governments dominated by ranching and hunting interests. The same mistake should not be made again with the grizzly bear. Our federal government's approach should be to find ways to expand grizzly bear habitat by connecting wild populations and former ranges while emphasizing methods of minimizing, preventing and responding to human-bear conflicts. And that Mr. Chekov, is an official comment.
*Michael Soulé and Reed Noss, "Rewilding and Biodiversity: Complementary Goals for Continental Conservation,";8 (Fall 1998) 19-28.