Rich Landers: Bears pay price when man intrudes
Critters have been all over the news recently, and that’s not usually a good sign. Among the headliners:
“The first confirmed wolf kill on livestock in Washington occurred in Stevens County, which means that wolf’s life insurance rating has taken a big hit.
“The first confirmed grizzly bear in the Bitterroot Mountains area since 1946 is also the area’s first dead grizzly in that period, dispatched over a bait pile by a hunter’s bullet.
Even more lethal, however, is the continuing flood of humans setting up sloppy housekeeping in wildlife habitat.
Bears in particular are drowning in temptations flowing from human intrusion.
At least 10 “problem” black bears have been killed in Grand Teton National Park and nearby areas this year, according to park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs.
“It’s been a rather disappointing year,” she said.
Not far away, a family of three grizzly bears had to be captured last month after raising havoc in the Island Park Ranger District of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.
The Yellowstone-area grizzlies – a population recently removed from the threatened and endangered species lists, but still holding a tenuous existence in the lower 48 states – will never be able to return to the wild.
While they apparently will find homes in captivity, they’re gone from the ecosystem.
From a wildlife management point of view, they’re dead.
The bears included a 5-year-old female, first captured two summers ago in Harriman State Park, and her two cubs of this year.
Since her first capture after forcing her way into a trash compactor at the state park, the female has continued to be tempted by everything from unattended coolers to million-dollar second homes showing up in her formerly wild neighborhood.
“The Forest Service and counties are expanding food storage ordinances, but there’s no cook book answer,” Losinski said.
The female was shipped to Washington State University. The two cubs were on the verge of being euthanized until Idaho Fish and Game managers found an opening for them at the San Diego Zoo.
“All the paper work isn’t done, yet, but it looks like we’re very fortunate to have found somewhere with the facility and expertise to make a 30-year-commitment for taking these bears,” said Gregg Losinski, Fish and Game Department spokesman in Idaho Falls.
From lows of about 230 in 1973, Yellowstone region grizzlies have expanded to more than 600. Just as their population has recovered, people are populating the wild lands the bears need for survival.
It’s a clear collision course.
Hookers needed: Fish researchers are recruiting anglers to help them estimate rainbow trout in the Idaho portion of the Spokane River from Post Falls Dam to the State Line Oct. 8-19. The study seeks to learn how many of the fish recently tagged in Washington move upstream into Idaho during that period. Volunteers (Idaho license needed) will be asked to keep track of the dates and areas fished, how many spaghetti-tagged rainbows caught, and the colors of and numbers on the tags.
Volunteers will be encouraged to fish as many days as possible during the study dates.
This is tough work, but somebody has to do it.
To sign up, call Rod O’Connor, (509) 892-1001 ext. 314.
Greed, selfishness confronted: Two nagging fishing issues will be considered Tuesday in a public meeting, 7 p.m., Stevens County Conservation District, 232 Williams Lake Road in Colville:
“Discouraging “bucket biologists” from fouling the state’s investment in fisheries management by making it illegal to possess any fish species other than rainbow trout while fishing at Ellen, Hatch and Williams lakes.
“Protecting huge upper Columbia rainbow trout during spawning with a proposal to close fishing from the Coulee Dam National Recreation Boundary upstream of Onion Creek to the Canada border.
While a few anglers have enjoyed catching these trophy ‘bows for years, a new wave of guided fishing – including catch-and-keep steelhead-style drift fishing – is hammering these naturally reproducing trout at their most vulnerable time.