The State - News from Sept. 17, 1985

California has rejected Montana’s offer to transplant some of its grizzly bears here, saying that the Golden State has no room for them. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any grizzlies, but we’ll just have to live with the black bears,” said Eldridge G. Hunt, chief of the state Fish and Game Department’s wildlife management branch. Hunt said there are about 15,000 black bears in California, representing a “good population.” The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department some time ago offered to ship some of its grizzlies to California and several other states and Canadian provinces because they are a danger to people and livestock. “It’s one thing to have them up there (Montana) with a lot of back country,” Hunt said. “There is just not enough wilderness area in California.” The last documented sighting of a wild grizzly in California was in 1922, officials said.