Montana Hearing Split On Grizzly Return Supporters Say Bears Are National Treasure, Foes Warn Of Danger
A divided crowd showed up for the first of three Montana hearings on the proposed reintroduction of grizzly bears in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area.
About half of the people who spoke at the Hamilton hearing Wednesday opposed any reintroduction, and half supported reintroducing bears as a threatened population with full protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Among the 50 or so people who spoke, only one expressed support for a less comprehensive reintroduction endorsed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Opponents of any reintroduction were concerned that bears would harm people using the outdoors and that the environmental needs of bears eventually would cause a ban on some recreation in the area.
“When I walk up a canyon trail, I really enjoy it now,” said Don Everard of Hamilton, just east of the wilderness. “I wouldn’t like to have to wonder if a grizzly is around the next tree.”
A woman at the hearing showed a photograph of a woman killed by a grizzly bear in Glacier National Park.
Ron Gibford of Hamilton, a member of Backcountry Horsemen, said reintroducing grizzlies, classified as an endangered species, would cost too much. He also indicated the Selway-Bitterroot doesn’t have the habitat to support grizzlies.
“They’d be here if the habitat was right,” Gibford said.
Ravalli County Sheriff Jay Printz and Rep. Allan Walters, R-Hamilton, opposed reintroduction. Opposition by two of the three Ravalli County commissioners was read into the record at the hearing, which was attended by several hundred people.
Supporters of reintroduction said grizzly bears are a national treasure proposed for reintroduction on national lands, and the desires of people beyond the immediate area should be considered.
Roger DeHaan of Victor said the question is not whether grizzlies should be reintroduced, but how.
“God created the grizzlies the same way he created all the rest of us,” DeHaan said. “We have a strong moral responsibility to respect his work.”
Some supporters of reintroduction said the specific proposal preferred by the Fish and Wildlife Service does not provide enough protected habitat and migration corridors.
Doyle Gerrard of Corvallis said he opposes the citizens’ management committee called for in the agency’s preferred option. The committee would amount to giving a few local residents, politically appointed, power over a wildlife recovery project of national significance, Gerrard said.
A hearing also was held in Challis, Idaho, on Wednesday. Most of the people who spoke opposed reintroduction.
Other hearings were scheduled this week in Missoula and Helena, and in the Idaho cities of Lewiston and Boise.
xxxx PROPOSAL Fish and Wildlife has proposed reintroducing at least 25 bears over five years. Rather than having the protection now afforded bears under the Endangered Species Act, the agency says these animals should be considered an experimental, nonessential population. They could be removed under certain circumstances, such as the threatening of livestock.