U.S. Urges Changes in Plan to Bring Back Grizzles

The U.S. Forest Service has recommended that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service draft a grizzly bear reintroduction plan that is more acceptable to the people of central Idaho and southwestern Montana.

In a letter released Tuesday, the chiefs of the Northern Rockies and Intermountain regions told the Fish and Wildlife Service that the return of grizzlies “hinges upon broad public acceptance” that has not been shown with the existing plan.

The wildlife service’s preferred plan “did not garner strong public support at the recently held public hearings in Montana and Idaho,” the regional foresters said.

Although still fairly numerous in Alaska, only about 800 grizzlies remain in the lower 48 states. Most of them are found in Yellowstone National Park and in northwestern Montana around Glacier National Park. They have been listed as a threatened species since 1975.

Under a five-year plan drafted by the Fish and Wildlife Service, three to five grizzlies would be moved each year to central Idaho. A 15-member citizen panel would be given broad power to manage the bear reintroduction program, subject to override by the interior secretary. The aim is to avoid the bitter confrontations that arose from attempts to protect the Northern spotted owl.

Hundreds of people attended public hearings earlier this month regarding the restoration of the bear along the Continental Divide, and there have been sharp divisions on the plan.

In their formal comment on the plan, Dale Bosworth, head of the Northern Region based in Missoula, and Jack Blackwell, acting regional forester for the Intermountain Region based in Salt Lake City, said federal officials need to better address the concerns expressed by some that the central Idaho region would be poor grizzly bear habitat, unable to support more than a low density of bears.

They agreed with comments by Montana Gov. Marc Racicot that the Idaho reintroduction should not detract from efforts to remove the bear from the threatened species list in Yellowstone or the Northern Rockies.

“Recovery successes such as delisting of the bear in the Yellowstone ecosystem are needed to foster public acceptance of endangered species recovery, including the Bitterroot grizzly,” they said. Seed animals for Idaho should not be taken from Yellowstone or the Northern Rockies unless they are truly “surplus,” the foresters said.