And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Wild Rockies InfoNet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At 09:32 AM 12/18/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Yellowstone Grizzly Lumbers To Center of Wildlife Debate
>
>By Tom Kenworthy
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Saturday, December 12, 1998; Page A03
>
>BOZEMAN, Mont.
>
>How many grizzly bears are there, and how many are enough?
>
>Those deceptively simple questions are at the heart of a brewing
fight over
>what is likely to be one of the government's most controversial
wildlife
>decisions since the Endangered Species Act became law in 1973:
whether the
>grizzly bear population in and around Yellowstone National Park
should be
>taken off the threatened-species list and its management handed over
to the
>states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
>
>Nearly a quarter century after the government extended protection to
the
>reclusive and sometimes menacing creature that symbolizes North
American
>wilderness, federal scientists and bear managers are cautiously
negotiating
>the bureaucratic steps that would result in a declaration of victory
for
>one of only two large grizzly populations remaining in the lower 48
states.
>
>Sometime early next year, they will seek public comment on a
conservation
>strategy that would guide bear management after delisting, and
perhaps by
>late 1999 formally propose to declare the Yellowstone bears
recovered.
>
>For the Clinton administration, eager to demonstrate that the
Endangered
>Species Act works -- even though just 11 species have been taken off
the
>list in 25 years -- it would be a major environmental trophy. But
when it
>comes to the grizzly bear, whose need for big chunks of wild country
and
>inability to coexist with people are unsurpassed, consensus among
the
>biologists, federal and state agencies, politicians, economic
interests and
>conservation groups that have a stake in its management is almost
always
>impossible.
>
>So the fight has already won recruits. Some environmentalists are
accusing
>the government of caving in to politicians who favor delisting in
the
>belief it will mean fewer restrictions on commercial use of federal
forest
>and rangeland abutting Yellowstone. And biologists are arguing
among
>themselves about how much the bear population has increased and what
kind
>of long-term future the species has, given human pressures on the
lands
>surrounding Yellowstone.
>
>Chris Servheen, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who heads
the
>government grizzly bear recovery program, estimates that 400 to 600
grizzly
>bears live in and around Yellowstone and that the population is
growing 4
>percent to 5 percent a year. That is more than twice as many bears as
at
>the time the species was listed and the park abruptly decided to
close the
>garbage dumps that many bears depended on, an action that resulted in
the
>deaths of scores of grizzlies but weaned them from dependence on
human food.
>
>"We now have bears where they haven't been in 40 years,"
said Servheen,
>citing bear dispersal south of Yellowstone into the Wind River Range
in
>Wyoming and east along the North Fork of the Shoshone River toward
Cody.
>"The reason is we have so many females having cubs."
>
>But David Mattson, a prominent bear researcher working with the
U.S.
>Geological Survey, strongly disagrees with Servheen. In a paper he
co-wrote
>that is scheduled to be published in the journal Ecology, Mattson
wrote
>that "the Yellowstone grizzly bear population changed little
from 1975 to
>1995" and that fluctuations in the population had more to do
with cycles in
>a key food source -- whitebark pine nuts -- than with
government
>protections.
>
>The recent dispersal of bears into areas where they have been absent
for
>decades, said Mattson in an interview, could be an indication that
bears
>are frantically searching for new sources of food to replace ones
in
>decline. As an example, he cites the drop in whitebark pines due to
the
>1988 Yellowstone fires and the growing threat of a pine disease
called
>blister rust.
>
>Pine nuts are an important fall food source for grizzlies as they
pack on
>fat for the winter. Because whitebark pine is a high-elevation
species,
>this food source also helps bears avoid the kind of conflicts with
people
>that are the prime cause of their mortality.
>
>Mattson and others point to other food source threats that argue
against a
>hasty decision to declare Yellowstone's grizzlies recovered.
>
>The Yellowstone cutthroat trout population in Yellowstone Lake,
which
>provides a rich source of protein for dozens of bears during the
spring
>spawning run, is threatened by the illegal introduction of lake trout
that
>prey on the smaller cutthroat. It is also likely there will be fewer
bison
>for grizzlies to feed on once a new bison management plan is in place
that
>will probably result in a far smaller herd. And army cutworm moths,
which
>congregate on steep, rocky slopes at high altitude and are
another
>important food source, may be susceptible to global warming
trends.
>
>With so much uncertainty, suggests Mattson, it is premature to
consider
>removing federal protections.
>
>Skeptics also point to the escalating threat of private land
development in
>the Yellowstone ecosystem, which includes some of the
fastest-growing
>counties in the United States, and the specter of oil and gas
development
>in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests once federal
protections
>for the grizzly are lifted.
>
>"So we ask the question: 'Why now?' " said Louisa L.
Willcox, project
>coordinator for the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project.
"Are we at
>recovery? What's the hurry? This is an animal that is very slow
to
>reproduce. It's got every biological strike against it."
>
>But other environmental groups are holding their fire. Hank
Fischer,
>northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife, says that
"what
>a lot of people don't get is when the bear is delisted it doesn't
mean
>protection goes away. The whole intent of the Endangered Species Act
is to
>take the protections that are afforded by the act and transfer them
at the
>time of delisting to the states and other entities."
>
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