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The Grizzly bear is an American wildlife icon, and a key element of our distinctive Western wildlife heritage. Lewis and Clark wrote about encountering grizzly bears after they explored the West greater than 200 years in the past.
This 12 months, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is making progress on restoring grizzly bears to 2 ecosystems within the West, the place grizzlies have lengthy been absent: the North Cascades in north-central Washington, and the Bitterroots alongside the Montana-Idaho border. ESC has discipline workers engaged on the bottom in each areas.
Within the Washington, the Nationwide Park Service is main the planning course of to reintroduce grizzly bears into the North Cascades Nationwide Park. As a result of this ecosystem is way eliminated—and subsequently remoted—from its counterparts additional east in Idaho and Montana, the seize and translocation of a handful of grizzly bears over a protracted time period is important to reestablish a wholesome, self-sustaining inhabitants right here. ESC has been engaged within the public course of across the North Cascades. We’re supportive of efforts to reintroduce grizzly bears into this space, in addition to efforts to teach residents and guests on find out how to stay and recreate in grizzly bear habitat in ways in which reduce grizzly bear interactions with individuals and livestock.
Over within the Bitterroot Ecosystem, the FWS was just lately ordered by a court docket to restart the long-stalled-out technique of contemplating find out how to restore grizzly bears to the mountains of western Montana and north-central Idaho. Twenty years in the past, the FWS developed and launched a plan to reintroduce grizzlies right here, but it surely was scrapped on account of political meddling by the Bush Administration. Not like within the North Cascades, nonetheless, through the previous 20 years a handful of grizzly bears have migrated naturally into the Bitterroots. Sadly, they haven’t remained, and we don’t know for positive if there are any grizzly bears at present dwelling there, particularly feminine bears essential to develop a inhabitants. Now the FWS should rethink whether or not or to not reintroduce grizzlies to the Bitterroots, or to permit a inhabitants to reestablish naturally. ESC is rigorously contemplating the very best strategy to recovering grizzly bears within the Bitterroots. We aren’t positive that an aggressive reintroduction program in such a politically-charged area will probably be one of the best ways ahead for bears. Whatever the path chosen by the FWS, the conservation of key wildlife corridors and the cautious administration of bear attractants (rubbish, livestock, pet meals, and so on) across the edges of the restoration space will probably be vital to make sure profitable restoration.
Lastly, the FWS is at present contemplating petitions from the states of Montana and Wyoming to take away Endangered Species Act protections for the rising bear populations round Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide. Not too long ago-passed laws and different coverage adjustments in Montana for wolves, grizzly bears and huge carnivores typically give us nice pause when contemplating the power or want of Montana to proceed to responsibly preserve grizzly bears with out robust federal oversight. Moreover, previous makes an attempt to delist grizzly bears have demonstrated a scarcity of willingness by the FWS to place robust sideboards into guidelines that may maintain the states’ accountable for grizzly bear conservation post-delisting. Due to this fact, ESC opposes delisting of grizzly bear populations in these restoration areas right now. As one of many slowest-reproducing mammals on the planet, grizzly bear populations will at all times be delicate to mortality, and thus would require steady, robust conservation measures. As such, any delisting rule or post-delisting regulatory framework MUST embody strong and enforceable requirements to make sure that grizzly bears thrive into the longer term. ESC will proceed to push for such measures, if any when the USFWS proposes delisting, whereas advocating for elevated panorama connectivity, in addition to funding for wildlife crossing initiatives, attractant administration, and different coexistence measures.
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