Grizzly bears bounce back, but debate erupts

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – Wolves are big business for Pat Phillips’ Yellowstone National Park tour company, but nothing compares to spotting a grizzly bear.

“It’s the top predator in the park. They’re really majestic,” said Phillips, who spends his summers leading geologic and wildlife tours for Safari Yellowstone. “It’s so powerful it’s unbelievable.”

Phillips credits the Endangered Species Act, which has protected grizzly bears since 1975, with helping the grizzly population rebound. But he worries that the federal government’s upcoming proposal to delist the big bear would reverse that progress.

Before the month’s end, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to release its draft proposal for delisting the grizzly. That will be followed by a 90-day public comment period and public meetings.

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would be expected to release their own plans for management of the grizzlies before control of the animal is handed from the federal government to the states.

If everything goes smoothly, grizzlies could be removed from Endangered Species Act list by early next year.

Officials with both the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimate that the grizzly population dropped to about 200 animals before they received federal protection three decades ago. Now there are an estimated 450 to 600 bears, enough to deem the population recovered.

The goal of the Endangered Species Act is to help animals until they can survive on their own, said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Larry Dickerson, who has led Idaho’s grizzly bear recovery efforts.

“Biologically, without a doubt, the bears are ready to delist,” Dickerson said. “This is what everybody has been working toward for 30 years. So many people think when something is on the Endangered Species Act it will be there forever. There are people who will fight delisting for the sake of fighting it as opposed to the biology.”

Environmentalists and scientists who study grizzly bears agree the federal protection has helped bolster grizzly numbers. They disagree, however, that the population is now stable in Yellowstone.

Environmentalists say grizzlies’ main food sources – white bark pine nuts and Yellowstone cutthroat trout – are being threatened by beetles, blister rot and a non-native, predatory species of lake trout.

Besides, said Louisa Willcox, wild bears project director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, states don’t have the resources to manage grizzlies once they are delisted.

She believes the push for delisting has more to do with money than science.

Federal protection of grizzlies has also protected much of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem from development, she said.

“This administration is really looking to get into remote country for development purposes on public land,” Willcox said. “The constraints of the ESA have limited the type of development on grizzly bear habitat for a long time.”