Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-CA) has introduced a bill, H.R. 1472, the
"Don't feed the Bears Act" of 2003, which would put an end to the unsavory
practice of bear baiting, as practiced in Alaska and other places.  The
House Resources Committee, Fisheries Subcommittee, will hold a hearing ont
his bill this Thursday, June 12.
______________

     WHAT YOU CAN DO

Urge your representative to work for passage of H.R. 1472, the "Don't feed
the Bears Act" of 2003, sponsored by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) and 72
co-sponsors.  This bill would ban bear baiting on national park and wildlife
refuge system lands, and all other federal lands managed by the Interior and
Agriculture Departments.

Background:

 Bear baiting is allowed in some Alaska national wildlife refuges and
 elsewhere in the country.  Some good arguments against the practice
 are listed in a draft NPS proposal to prohibit it written recently by
 staff of Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve for submission
 to the Alaska Board of Game this year.  The park proposed to ban black
 bear baiting in the national preserve, but the Alaska Regional Office
 of the NPS did not allow the proposal to reach the Game Board,
 apparently fearing the political repercussions of challenging this
 despicable technique.

   The Federal Subsistence Board in Alaska also just authorized bear
 baiting in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge.  The State's
 sport hunting regulations already permit this practice in 11 of the 16
 refuges.

 Here are excerpts from the draft proposal:

 ISSUE:  The baiting of bears creates several problems inconsistent
 with the effective management of bears and humans, and is inconsistent
 with the National Park Service policies and regulations.  Notable
 among these are the following:

 a) Bear baiting increases the likelihood for human-bear conflicts to occur.
Bear baiting provides human foods to bears and other wildlife.  Bears that
associate humans with food ("food conditioned") are considerably more likely
to injure people than bears that are not.  Furthermore since many bears that
come to bait stations are not killed by the attending hunter, all brown
bears using the bait may become food-conditioned.
 b)  Human-bear conflicts commonly result in the destruction of bears. Bears
that become food-conditioned commonly become nuisance bears, and are killed
by the public in defense of life or property, [DLP] or are killed in
management actions by the land management agency.  Bears killed in DLP
actions comprise a significant source of mortality.
 c) Bait stations have the potential of significantly altering the
 movement of bears. Bears have a keen sense of smell, and bait stations
 attract bears away from natural food sources for miles, increasing the
 densities of bears around them, and the potential for intra-specific
 aggression and injury [among bears].
 d) Providing bears with human foods is inconsistent with National Park
 Service policy and regulations. The feeding of wildlife is specifically
prohibited under federal law.

 WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF NOTHING IS DONE?  The conditioning of bears to
 human foods will continue, increasing the risk of conflicts between
 humans and bears.  The conflicts will result in increased property
 damage, risk of human injury, and loss of bears as the result of DLP
 and management actions.
  ##

 HR 1472 has 72 cosponsors at present.  There ought to be many more!

Vicky Hoover
Sierra Club Alaska Task Force
85 Second St., 2nd floor
San Francisco, CA 94105-3441
415-977-5527
[log in to unmask]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]