Feds Unveil Bitterroot Grizzly Plan Idaho Landowners, Lawmakers Oppose Species Reintroduction

Within a few years, grizzly bears could join wolves in the Bitterroot Mountains.

But not if Idaho has its way.

Federal agencies on Friday released plans to reintroduce 25 grizzlies to the vast forests and wilderness areas straddling Montana and Idaho. They successfully reintroduced wolves to that territory in 1996.

Like wolves, the newcomer grizzlies would be considered “experimental and nonessential,” meaning problem bears could be shot under some circumstances. Normally, it’s a federal offense to kill an animal protected under the Endangered Species Act.

In a first-ever concession to local control of an endangered species, the bears would be managed by a committee of 15 residents from the two states. However, any decision to kill an animal, close roads or take other controversial actions would be made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies.

The plan is praised by a coalition of two environmental groups and two key timber industry groups that proposed the “citizens management committee” more than two years ago.

Those groups said Montana Gov. Marc Racicot also supports the plan, although that could not be confirmed Friday with Racicot’s office. The plan is opposed by Citizens Against Grizzlies, a landowners’ group based in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley.

Ranchers, congressional aides, Idaho legislators and county commissioners were among the opponents who attended an anti-grizzly rally last year in Salmon, Idaho. The opponents say grizzlies pose a safety threat and would lead to land-use restrictions.

If necessary, the state will tap into its $1 million “constitutional defense fund” to fight the plan, said Mark Snider, a spokesman for Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

Some environmental groups also oppose the plan. They want full protection for the bears and may sue to seek it, said Mike Bader, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

However, Bader acknowledged that the environmentalists’ case is weakened by a federal court of appeals decision in January. The court upheld “experimental” status for wolves reintroduced to the Bitterroots and Yellowstone National Park.

Under the plan outlined in an Environmental Impact Statement, the Fish and Wildlife Service would stock the Bitterroots with five young bears a year for five years.

The transplants would come from Canada or healthy U.S. populations, said Jay Gore, grizzly habitat coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service. Biologists would release them deep in the Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church-River of No Return wilderness areas.

If all went perfectly, the first bears could be wandering the Bitterroots in the summer of 2001. That’s not likely, given the threat of lawsuits and other factors.

Gore hopes to transplant the first bears during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which ended in 1806. The explorers killed at least seven grizzlies near present-day Kamiah, Idaho. The Bitterroot bears were hunted heavily in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Federal biologists say the last known shooting of a Bitterroot grizzly was in 1932, although tracks were spotted as late as 1946. Idaho outlawed grizzly hunting in 1945.

Grizzlies were given endangered species protection in 1975.

Hunters, backpackers and others have reported seeing grizzlies in recent years, but biologists have been unable to confirm any of the sightings. Black bears often are mistaken for grizzlies.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is training volunteers to identify the bears. The group hopes to prove grizzlies remain in the Bitterroots so they can make the case that reintroduced bears aren’t “experimental.”

The deal for a citizens’ management committee was struck by the Intermountain Forest Association, the National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Resource Organization on Timber Supply, an industry and labor group.

While less than enthusiastic about the prospects of having grizzlies in the Bitterroots, the forest association hopes the agreement becomes a model for other endangered species issues, said Stefany Bales, spokeswoman for the association, which is based in Coeur d’Alene.

“The `if’ and `when’ (of reintroduction) is still an open question,” said Bales. “This proposal deals with how you manage them if and when they return.”

Hank Fischer, Montana representative for the Defenders of Wildlife, said his group sought compromise because it wanted to avoid the 10-year battle it fought to reintroduce wolves.

“We were successful in reintroducing wolves, but it took a long time and a lot of money,” said Fischer. “And a lot of people were really angry at us.”

This sidebar appeared with the story:

AT A GLANCE

Grizzly population

Biologists estimate that 50,000 grizzly bears lived in the continental United States prior to European settlement. They now number fewer than 1,200, scattered primarily in four populations.

The largest population is in Yellowstone National Park and the forests around it, where an estimated 400 to 600 grizzlies live. Another 300 to 400 live in Glacier National Park and surrounding areas.

Perhaps 50 grizzlies live in Washington’s and Idaho’s Selkirk Mountains. Fewer than 40 live in Montana’s Cabinet Mountains.

Researchers in Washington’s Cascade Mountains have been unable to locate any grizzlies during recent surveys. Previous estimates placed the population at five to 30.

Biologists believe the Bitterroot Mountains could support 280 grizzlies. It would take 50 to 100 years to reach that goal if 25 bears are introduced into the region.