Grizzly Transfers May Be Stayed Bill Now Requires Citizens Panel To Review Science Behind Plan

The likelihood of grizzly bears being introduced next year into Idaho is minimal.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, chief of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Wednesday that she does not expect any bears to be transferred into Idaho in 2001.

Just to be sure, Idaho legislators inserted language into the Interior Department appropriations bill that would prohibit the agency from reintroducing the bears, pending a scientific review by a citizens management committee.

The USFWS grizzly bear recovery plan calls for the introduction of 25 bears, some from Canada and some from the Yellowstone ecosystem, into the Bitterroot Mountains over a five-year period. The plan also calls for the formation of a citizens committee to oversee bear recovery, but the agency would have veto power over that committee’s decisions.

That bothers Crapo.

It also concerns him that Idaho does not have a say in how one of the most ferocious beasts on the continent would be managed in Idaho.

“We should have a truly collaborative decision-making process in place, and not mandates handed down from the federal government,” Crapo said in a news release Thursday. But he added that the agency was making reasonable efforts to be more cooperative.

He specifically referred to the agency’s willingness to consider allowing ranchers and others to use non-lethal means, such as rubber bullets, to control wolves.

“While we’re still not convinced they’re letting the states take the lead, we applaud the fact that they’re moving in that direction,” said Lindsay Northern, a Crapo staff member in Boise.

The agency could make a final decision on grizzly re-introduction as early as next month.

Many Idahoans, particularly ranch ers in the Salmon River area, have been vehemently opposed to the plan, while supporters consider it one of the best ways to prevent grizzly bear extinction in the country.