Fish And Game Joins Groups Against Grizzlies Commissioners Go On Record With Qualms About Bear Plan

Both the Idaho Fish and Game Commission and environmentalists knocked the federal government’s preferred alternative to restore grizzly bears in Idaho by transplanting them in the Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness.

The commissioners, meeting Friday in Boise, threw their unanimous support behind sending a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reiterate their qualms about releasing up to 25 grizzlies from Canada over five years into a 5,785-square-mile area. The goal would be to build a population of 280 bears.

The letter will be included in the record as Fish and Wildlife makes its final decision, and could be part of an appeal by the state.

Fish and Game staff said the transplants might be a danger to humans, endangered salmon and even their own survival if they are moved to a zone without a proper food source.

“If you introduce it in areas where its chance of survival is poor, you put that bear at risk,” Fish and Game Director Stephen Mealey said. “It’s a question of uncertainty.”

Mealey maintains the recovery plan has a fatal flaw in that the draft environmental impact statement fails to match a study that led to the current proposal.

Earlier research found northcentral Idaho could support grizzlies after examining habitat from Kelly Creek southward.

An interagency committee decided in 1991 the Selway-Bitterroot was a suitable recovery zone, which led to Fish and Wildlife’s reintroduction proposal.

But the plan fails to follow the earlier survey, Mealey said, because it cuts off the northern part of the study area, the richest bear habitat for food sources.

The grizzlies could eventually reach drainages where they would eat endangered salmon, conflicting with federal recovery efforts, said Wayne Melquist, Fish and Game nongame manager.

Fish and Wildlife’s preferred option reflects a compromise between wildlife and timber industry groups. The bears released would be considered an experimental, nonessential population and could be shot in self-defense or removed if they are threatening livestock. A citizen committee would guide management of the bears.

Friday’s letter to Chris Servheen, Fish and Wildlife grizzly project leader, said the commission questions if that citizen committee would have any real clout because Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt could override its decisions if he thinks they imperil recovery.

“It really flaws the process and that puts the process and the bear in jeopardy,” Melquist said, adding Fish and Game would support the natural recovery of the Bitterroot population.

That is the part of the approach backed by the Sierra Club and Alliance for the Wild Rockies. They also favor protecting roadless areas as travel corridors for the bear from the Panhandle to the central part of the state. Grizzlies would also keep full protection under the Endangered Species Act.