Batt Opposed To Grizzly Bear Reintroduction

Reintroducing grizzly bears into Idaho could harm the state’s resource economy, says Gov. Phil Batt, who stands opposed to transplanting them.

Batt told the “Dialogue” program on public television Thursday that reintroducing grizzly bears will be more complicated for Idaho residents to accommodate than the endangered gray wolf. Biologists started releasing wolves in Idaho in January.

“As far as the difficulty of living with reintroduction, I think it’s more so with grizzly bears because of the need to lay aside a very large habitat for their recovery,” he said.

“My fear is that if you reintroduce them - even in the primitive area - and they start moving out of there, we’re going to see the idling of forest product recovery, grazing, the other things which we’ve been using the land for, to protect the grizzly bear.

“I’m not in favor of reintroducing them,” Batt said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the reintroduction of 20 to 30 bears over a 5-year period in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness along the Montana border.

Federal biologists say the 5,500-square-mile ecosystem recovery area apparently has low potential for petroleum or mineral recovery and no livestock grazing occurs there at present.