Batt Tries Again To Block Grizzly Recovery Trials Governor Opposes Restoration In Selway-Bitterroot Region

With a draft grizzly bear recovery plan just weeks away, Gov. Phil Batt has tried again to block the experiment.

Batt, leading the charge against restoration in the Selway-Bitterroot region, met Wednesday with members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. The panel already has endorsed the area as a suitable recovery spot.

A draft study of options is reportedly awaiting signatures next month that could send Idaho on another experiment to restore a predator lost from its rugged interior, following the gray wolf.

Participants at the meeting included key players in a “citizen-management” plan, showing that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is leaning toward placing an experimental population of bears in the Bitterroot.

The long-delayed grizzly study is expected to include a no-recovery option, as well as a proposal by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies that would expand the recovery zone south to the southern borders of the Boise, Sawtooth and Challis national forests.

The Department of the Interior is expected to release its draft study, along with its preferred alternative, in May. That will begin a public comment period and public hearings before the agency issues a more specific proposal.

Grizzly advocates say they have worked to make the bear easier for Idaho residents to accept by reducing some federal protections while allowing logging to continue in fringe habitat.

But Batt remains against artificial recovery.

“The governor reiterated his belief that reintroduction is not in Idaho’s best interest,” Batt spokesman Frank Lockwood said of the meeting. “Idahoans don’t want grizzlies in their back yards. There isn’t strong support for reintroduction.”

Lockwood said Batt is concerned that bear protections under the Endangered Species Act “often impacts people’s lives, their jobs, the economy, and that’s a tremendous concern.”

If Idaho resists the bear’s return, the state may be left out of its management, as it was with the wolves. The wolf recovery effort is managed by the Nez Perce Tribe.

Supporters of bear recovery argue fears of grizzly attacks and reduced hunting and logging are unfounded. They acknowledge Idaho may have to make some adjustments - from cutting back on black bear baiting in grizzly habitat to some closed forest roads - to reduce conflicts with the predators.