Connection: Not Just America’S Problem

Rescuing endangered wolves, grizzly bears and caribou in the United States relies on Canada a country ironically without an endangered species law.

Though U.S. officials praise Canada for its cooperation on wolf and bear programs, some conservationists say Canada’s failure to protect endangered animals at home jeopardizes U.S. recovery for grizzlies and caribou. The dozens of Canadian wolves transported to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996 have grown to 300 animals, according to federal wolf recovery coordinator Ed Bangs.

Wolves could come off the ESA list in 2002.

“After two years, the wolves are doing great,” Bangs said.

But four border populations of grizzly bears face less certain success. Stalled federal recovery plans due out this fall cover more than 300 U.S. grizzlies along the border from the North Cascades to Glacier National Park, officials say.

Less stringent laws in Canada don’t hamper his work, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator: “They have a ways to go, just as we do.”

But conservationists disagree, citing Canada’s failure to protect bear habitat.

Recovery hinges in part on bears that ramble down from British Columbia and Alberta, populations in decline mainly due to logging, said Mike Sawyer, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem Coalition in Calgary.

Conservationists say the same problem plagues the handful of woodland caribou that remain from 60 transported to Idaho’s Selkirk Mountains from Canada in the late 1980s.

People need to realize wolves, bear and other animals such as bald eagles aren’t “just American animals,” Bangs said.

“For a comprehensive conservation program, you need to have habitat that satisfies all these animals’ requirements.”