Tag Archives: greater Yellowstone ecosystem

More than just good data needed to delist Yellowstone grizzlies

December 16, 2013Environmental Issues, Newsbear recovery, Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Project, DNA study, greater Yellowstone ecosystem, grizzly bears, Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, Northern Continental Divide Ecosystemnfpa

Rob Chaney of the Missoulian posted a good summary of the state of the grizzly bear recovery effort.

Recommended reading . . .

Since the grizzly bear was listed as a federally threatened species in 1975, it’s made a remarkable comeback.

Decades of active hunting and poisoning, habitat destruction, isolation and manipulation pushed it to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 United States. California used to have the most, even putting it on its state flag. Californians killed their last grizzly in 1922. It was erased from its native prairie grasslands by the 1880s, just eight decades after the Lewis and Clark journals gave urban Americans their first account of the great bear.

By 1940, after heavy use of strychnine poisoning by farmers and ranchers, wildlife managers estimated the United States had perhaps 300 grizzlies (not counting Alaska). Today, about 1,850 roam the mountains of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington.

“There’s been a real evolution of attitudes that got us to this point,” said Chris Servheen, the grizzly recovery manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula. “We used to be all about killing predators. Now we’re concerned about predators.

Read more . . .

Grizzly bear managers recommend delisting in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

December 12, 2013Environmental Issues, NewsEndangered Species Act, greater Yellowstone ecosystem, Interagency Grizzly Bear Committeenfpa

A good article by Rob Chaney of the Missoulian on the recommendation to no longer list grizzlies as threatened in the Yellowstone region . . .

With new research showing grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park are going strong, Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee members unanimously called for ending federal protection of their namesake animal.

“This is not a decision to delist the grizzly,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly recovery coordinator Chris Servheen said after the vote was taken Wednesday. “It’s a recommendation to write a new rule.”

Higher authorities in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may decide by early January whether to follow the IGBC recommendation, made near the end of a two-day meeting in Missoula.

Read more . . .

Researchers find grizzlies not heavily dependent on whitebark pine nuts

November 8, 2013Documents, Newsgreater Yellowstone ecosystem, grizzly bear research, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whitebark pinenfpa

The grizzly bear delisting saga continues . . .

Grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem have a varied diet and are minimally affected by the decline in the number of whitebark pine trees, federal research found.

The findings were presented Thursday in Bozeman at a meeting of the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. The subcommittee voted 10-4 to accept the research findings. It also gave preliminary approval to a motion that recommends the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service remove federal protections for the bears, currently listed as “threatened.”

The USFWS delisted the bears in 2007, but a federal judge returned the protection two years later, saying the effect of the decline in whitebark pine trees on bears wasn’t given adequate consideration. Whitebark pine nuts are a key food source for grizzlies as they prepare for hibernation.

Research found that grizzly bears eat more than 200 types of food, 75 of them frequently. That means when one food source is low, as the whitebark pine is, they find another, said Frank van Manen, interagency study team leader.