Grizzly Plan Draws Wide Support Engineers Union Backs Bears’ Return To Bitterroots
The International Union of Operating Engineers in Spokane has thrown its support behind a grizzly reintroduction alternative supported by some environmentalists and timber workers, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies reports.
“The broad diversity of supporters, from workers, Christian groups, sporting interests, Main Street business owners, scientists and economists, shows us we have developed a bear recovery plan that benefits both people and bears,” said Don Smith, alliance Idaho representative.
The union represents about 2,600 heavy equipment operators in Idaho and Eastern Washington.
The local in Montana already has offered its support.
In a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the local endorsed a “conservation biology alternative” that sets up a recovery area around more than 3 million acres of wilderness.
The bears released in the Bitterroot Mountains would be a “non-essential experimental population,” allowing them to be killed if ranchers proved they were taking livestock.
Finally, the plan would establish a 15-member citizens management committee dominated by people who live in areas of Idaho and Montana adjacent to the recovery area.
It is supported by the Resource Organization On Timber Supply, National Wildlife Federation, Intermountain Forest Industry Association and Defenders of Wildlife.
“The CBA is the best alternative to protect the grizzly bears, while providing for the interests of taxpayers and workers,” wrote Jerry Stephenson, local business manager.
University of Utah economist Michael Garrity wrote an economic analysis of the option and found it would create 1,500 high-paying jobs through restoration of habitat and establishing a corridor between the Bitterroot bruins and other grizzlies.
Taxpayers also would save more than $137 million through prohibition of below-cost timber sales in roadless areas critical to grizzly recovery.
Some environmentalist groups oppose the alternative, opting for natural recovery.