Grizzlies Need Room

More:  Grizzlies are large, strong, and potentially dangerous animals.  The couple that was killed in Banff National Park recently, was camping deep in the Park when a female grizzly attacked their camp.  Family members said the couple were outdoor enthusiasts who used bear protocols.  Authorities responded to a satellite distress message; the couple and their dog were found dead outside their tent with an empty can of bear spray.  The bear was shot and killed by rangers.  A necropsy showed the bear to be nearing the end of her life with low fat reserves and worn teeth.  She was facing a slow death by starvation, and no doubt attacked the campers out of desperation.  The incident was the first fatal attack in half a century.

On a less tragic note, it is the annual "Fat Bear Week" in Katmai National Park, AK. Katmai bears are gorging on salmon in preparation for their annual winter hibernation.  Park rangers have created a contest bracket in which the public can vote for their favorite fat bear from posted photos.  Voting continues until "Fat Bear Tuesday", October 14th, when a bear with the most votes will be declared the winner.  Adult bears can pack on 200-300 pounds in a few weeks of feasting!

{04/10/2023} Biologists know that grizzly bears need a lot of room to survive.  But suitable habitat is becoming scarse as humans expand development ever further into the northern Rockies.  One solution that works is connecting existing protected land with corridors that bears can use for foraging and mating.  The Forest Service should be interested in creating more corridors and protecting the ones that already are in place.  Alliance for the Wild Rockies says that is not the case, and is suing the Forest Service to halt the massive twenty-year logging plan in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.

The Middleman Project covers 141,799 acres including logging and burning in old growth forests President Biden promised to protect.  This landscape happens to be adjacent to Gates of the Mountains Wilderness were grizzlies still live.  It is a key corridor between Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park ecosystems.  Yet the Forest Service plans to bulldoze forty-six miles of new logging roads and ninety miles of reconstructed roads in the Wilderness.  Tragically most bears are killed within 3 miles of a road since it gives poachers and hunters easier access to bear habitat.  The area is experiencing an exodus of elk due to human activity.  Elk is the main prey species for grizzly bears.  The Service has a poor record of enforcing closed roads, and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks says there are already too many roads in the area for elk to remain undisturbed.

Additionally, the Service cynically avoided its legal responsibility for maintaining suitable lynx habitat by removing 125,000 previously mapped lynx habitat from the project boundaries.  The agency contends that the project will improve wildfire protection.  This is misleading.  No amount of burning and road building will make forests "fireproof".  Best available scientific evidence indicates making homes more fire resistant by installing non-flammable roofs and decks and by removing vegetation within the curtilage.  The survival of the "white house" in Lahaina's conflagration  is a stark example of what can be achieved with this approach.  Opening forests to more drying sunlight and wind are significant factors in the most destructive wildfires.  The Forest Service needs to wake up to what the courts are telling them:  follow environmental rules, not the wishes of industry.  You can help preserve the Northern Rockies biome and grizzly survival in the wild by donating to the Wild Rockies Alliance here.