Timber Rep Called Grisly Choice Grizzly Bear Recovery Effort Hurt By Batt Choice For Panel, Groups Say

Appointing a timber company official to the group overseeing grizzly bear recovery will thwart chances of bringing back the bear, three environmental groups say.

The environmentalists say the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee should refuse Idaho Gov. Phil Batt’s appointment of Chuck Roady, a resource manager for Crown Pacific.

The Sandpoint Forest Watch, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Inland Empire Public Lands Council wrote Ralph Morganweck, head of the Interagency Bear Committee, to ask that Roady not be accepted.

However, federal officials say it’s strictly up to the governor to decide who represents Idaho on the committee.

Roady, of Bonners Ferry, will be on a subcommittee that directs grizzly recovery work in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk areas. He is the first industry official to be appointed to the group and replaces Dave Ortmann of Idaho Fish and Game, who is retiring from the committee.

Normally, people from the Fish and Game departments in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Canada are appointed to the subcommittee dealing with bear recovery areas.

Now “you have a timber industry representative having a voice in setting (bear recovery) standards,” said Liz Sedler of Sandpoint Forest Watch. “Crown Pacific is one of the major outfits that have logged the Yaak, they have fought road closures, and gotten the Forest Service to relax (recovery) standards.”

Sedler acknowledges there would be an equal uproar from industry if someone from an environmental group were appointed. But she said she would be equally opposed to that sort of appointment.

“It should strictly be based on science with biologists making the recommendations,” Sedler said.

Batt decided it was time to include another perspective, said Amy Kleiner, his press secretary. “He felt that it was essential to have someone on the committee from private enterprise that would represent the views of the people whose livelihoods will be affected by the reintroduction,” Kleiner said.

There are ample representatives from wildlife management agencies on the committee, she said.

Roady says environmentalists are overreacting. “One person does not a committee make,” he said.

He has worked on several government-private committees over the years dealing with grizzlies and “I’m not down on grizzly bears at all,” he said.

Instead he will bring input from the private sector, which people are clamoring for. And if he could change one thing about current grizzly efforts?

“The overzealousness to just push it on people without input,” Roady said.

“That has worked against bear recovery.”

Chris Servheen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and chief grizzly bear recovery coordinator said he worries because this means Idaho Fish and Game won’t have a voice on the panel.

“If an Idaho Fish and Game representative isn’t there, it’s of concern because their resources and expertise aren’t there to help with recovery,” Servheen said.

“I don’t know how it’s going to work out.”

Idaho Fish and Game officials in Boise could not be reached for comment.

But one Fish and Game biologist in North Idaho says the appointment may not be as bad as environmentalists say.

“I’ve worked with Chuck Roady and he’s not anti-bear, he’s just got some concerns about how it affects his ability to make a living,” said Wayne Wakkinen, who works on bear recovery from Bonners Ferry.

“I think he would like to see bears here as long as it doesn’t affect his ability to access the woods.”

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