Timber Group Pushes Grizzly Plan Proposal Focuses On Enhanced Enforcement, Education Instead Of Road Closures
Instead of bitterly opposing the Priest Lake grizzly bear protection plan, Idaho’s timber industry is trying a new tactic.
The Intermountain Forest Industry Association has hired its own wildlife biologist and pitched a plan to protect bears without closing 125 miles of roads, as the current Forest Service proposal would do.
“Everyone loses when we square off and are at odds,” said Ken Kohli, a spokesman for the association.
“We felt there was a unique opportunity at Priest Lake to work with other agencies and see what we can come up with. We think our plan is better for the bear and better for us. It doesn’t involve rocket science; it involves common sense.”
The plan calls for reducing grizzly bear deaths by beefing up enforcement, better educating the public and closing some roads temporarily.
“We are willing to talk about roads, but we don’t want to use that as the sole tool to solve a complex problem,” Kohli said.
Priest Lake ranger Kent Dunstan has agreed to look at the proposal, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Dunstan also has delayed any decision on road closures for 30 days to give the industry time to submit more specfic information.
“We are exploring it now to see if it does have any merit,” Dunstan said. “What it comes down to is a balancing act of what we can do to protect the bear and meet the needs of the local community.”
The timber industry says its plan would:
Enhance enforcement, especially during hunting season, by hiring additional conservation officers. The timber industry has offered to help fund the positions.
Educate forest users on bear safety, proper camping and hiking practices in bear country and the difference between black bears and grizzly bears.
The education program would go beyond handing out pamphlets and would include demonstrations by conservation officers at trailheads, as well as a newsletter and community workshops.
Install road gates to restrict access only in the spring, the primary time grizzlies use the Priest Lake area. Gates would be used on roads that lead to prime feeding areas or travel corridors for bears.
“The Forest Service needs to acknowledge that its road-closure plan is outdated and not working,” said Seth Diamond, a wildlife biologist in Montana who now works with the Intermountain Forest Industry Association.
“It’s not roads that kill bears; people do,” Diamond said.
Diamond helped manage a population of 100 grizzly bears in Montana’s Lewis and Clark National Forest. By the time the road-closure plan there was complete, only 50 miles of roads in the 800,000-acre forest remained open. But bears still were being killed, Diamond said.
“You can’t solve the (bear) mortality problems by just closing roads,” he said.
“We are offering a better solution and have folks willing to fund law enforcement and gates. That doesn’t happen very often.”
The current Forest Service proposal would close or obliterate 125 miles of roads.
That complies with a Forest Service plan to secure 70 percent of the 85,000-acre grizzly bear habitat.
Kohli said the 70 percent figure is a paper target that achieves an administrative goal for the Forest Service but does little to protect the grizzly.
The closures also could halt logging of 10 million to 20 million board feet of lumber annually in the Priest Lake area.
Kohli said he fears the extensive closure could lead to an antigrizzly backlash, what he calls the “SSS policy”: shoot ‘em, shovel ‘em and shut up.
“SSS is what you drive people to when you don’t let them be part of the decision-making process,” he said.
But Dunstan said the public has been involved.
A recent public comment period on the closure drew 400 responses - about half in favor and half against the Forest Service plan.
Dunstan said he agrees with the enforcement and education part of the timber industry’s plan.
However, he said the only way to really secure the area is to close roads.
“People shooting bears is our No. 1 problem, and we still are looking for something specific that relates to that problem,” Dunstan said.
In the entire Selkirk grizzly bear management unit, eight bears have been killed by humans in the last 10 years.
Most of those deaths occurred during hunting season. Diamond said that alone supports the argument for bolstering enforcement, not installing gates that can be bypassed.
“This (plan) is an important steppingstone to see if both sides can find a way to succeed,” Kohli said.
“Our industry is doing its darnedest to be the friend of some of these species and look for a way to get a little for the species and for us.”
xxxx This is a sidebar which appeared with story: What’s next? Priest Lake ranger Kent Dunstan has agreed to look at the timber industry’s proposal, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Dunstan also has delayed any decision on road closures in the area for 30 days.