More Bad News for Bears

Yesterday I wrote about the Fish and Wildlife beginning a study to declare the polar bear a threatened species. I don't know how this got past me, but tomorrow is the end of the 90 day comment period on a move by the Interior Dept to delist Yellowstone's small population of grizzly bears as an endangered species. Shouldn't this be good news? Meaning that we have saved these bears from extinction? Well, evidently not. We're not talking about grizzlies in general here, only the five to six hundred of them in the Yellowstone area. Here's some background on this from Earthjustice:

On Tuesday, November 15, 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park. The proposal would separate the Yellowstone grizzly bear population from other populations around the country, and would remove the population from the list of species protected by the Endangered Species Act. The proposal would allow the bears to be hunted and open protected habitat just outside the park to large-scale real estate, logging, and energy development, accelerating the loss of bear habitat and increasing the likelihood of bear-human conflicts.

Grizzly bears in the continental United States, including those in and around Yellowstone National Park, were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975 after being driven to the brink of extinction. At that time, less than one percent of their historic numbers remained. Today Yellowstone’s grizzly population has increased to an estimated 500 bears, but that does not mean they are ready to lose the federal protections that have kept them around for the last thirty years. The bears are still not dispersed across a broad enough area of occupied, contiguous, diverse habitat for them to be truly recovered.

Under the delisting proposal, grizzlies outside the park would be managed by the surrounding states. Because the neighboring states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho all have plans to allow grizzly hunting if the bears are de-listed, removing federal protection for grizzly bears would inevitably result in more bears being killed by humans.

In addition, lands surrounding Yellowstone have been targeted for clear-cutting, road building, and oil and gas development by the Bush administration, which would spell real trouble for grizzlies if their Endangered Species Act protection were removed.

Independent scientists have repeatedly cautioned that if we want to maintain a healthy grizzly bear population over the long term, then delisting the grizzly would be the wrong thing to do. Yellowstone’s grizzlies need legal safeguards and habitat protections now, more than ever.

Interesting stuff on this controversy here, in "Delisting the Grizzly" from a PBS Nature series on The Good, the Bad and the Grizzly. If you want make your voice heard on this, it would seem we have only hours remaining in which to do so. Click here to take action now.

| +Save/Share | |