Yellowstone News: Bears - Grizzly Future

Grizzly future now being decided
Conservation strategy would dictate bear management following delisting.
By Rachel Odell, Jackson Hole News 3-21-00

Federal officials met in Jackson this week to discuss how to manage grizzly bears after they are removed from the endangered species list.

The meeting was one of several held throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The document to be reviewed, known as the conservation strategy, will establish guidelines to ensure the bears' permanent survival here. Federal officials released the plan earlier this month as part of a larger grizzly bear recovery plan. State and federal agencies must sign off on the recovery plan before the bear can be removed from the endangered species list, where its status is "threatened."

Document details

The draft strategy says that during six consecutive years there must be at least 15 female grizzlies with cubs within a 9,209-square-mile "primary conservation area," currently known as the recovery area. There is a 10-mile buffer zone outside of the PCA that totals 5,271 square miles that the plan says is also important grizzly habitat but that won't receive special protection.
At least 16 of the 18 bear management units within the area must be occupied by a female with cubs at least one of every six years.

The strategy allows only 6 percent of annual bear deaths to be caused by humans. Of that, no more than 30 percent of the deaths can be females.

The plan also requires biologists to study the long-term genetic viability of the bear as well as four important foods: white bark pine, army cutworm moths, cutthroat trout, and prey animals.

Current management

These requirements are the same as those in the current bear grizzly bear recovery plan and differ little from an original recovery plan that was challenged in court by environmentalists in 1993, according to Louisa Willcox of the Sierra Club.

The lawsuit argued the government did not use scientific methods for estimating grizzly populations, did not include habitat protection, and did nothing to ensure genetic viability. A federal judge ruled in favor of the environmentalists and told officials to incorporate better data into the conservation strategy and to include habitat criteria.

Greens doubt fed methods

A central point of the lawsuit is that environmentalists do not support using females with cubs to measure population size because it doesn't accurately reflect the entire population, Willcox said. "There is a big bias inherent in the use of females with cubs," she said. "The methodology that are used have been found to be not as good as other options. But now they are locked into females with cubs and to switch this would have to mean more data collection, more time. They don't want to change horses in the middle of the stream, they want to get to delisting."

Only a draft

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Chris Servheen heads the grizzly bear recovery effort. He emphasized that the conservation strategy is a draft that is subject to change, based on public comments. "We would hope that people would be coming up with ideas on how to improve it, not just criticize it," he said of the strategy.

Problem bears

The document defers to individual states on how to manage nuisance bears. It does not say if officials would support grizzly bear hunts once the bear is delisted. Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Dave Moody said he does not believe officials would implement a sport hunt immediately following delisting. He said it is too early to say if the Game and Fish Department will use hunters to control nuisance bears.

"It depends what comes out of the state planning process," Moody said. "Legally, when the bear changes status, sport hunting could take place. If it does, I think it would be extremely limited in the early phases of delisting."

Pricey trophies

Wyoming statutes say a grizzly bear hunting license for a non-resident would cost $17,500. A resident would pay $1,750 for a license. Grizzly bears are classified as a trophy game animal, according to Wyoming statutes.

Before the bear can be removed from the threatened and endangered species list Wyoming must have a management plan in place. Game and Fish officials began meeting last year to discuss the process for developing the plan. Officials plan to meet more this summer to begin the process of writing a state management plan.

To see the draft strategy...

The plan is available at the Teton County Library or on the internet at http://www.r6.fws.gov/endspp/grizzly . Comments on the plan are due by June 1.