Interior releases post-delisting management proposal for grizzlies
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Published:
The Fish and Wildlife Service today released a draft conservation
strategy for grizzly bears in northern Montana, a document designed to
demonstrate the species is ready to be removed from the endangered
species list.
While no final decisions have been made about whether to delist the
Northern Continental Divide population of grizzlies, agency officials
said the strategy is designed to provide "adequate regulatory
mechanisms" to ensure the species continues to thrive, a key requisite
under the Endangered Species Act.
"We developed this strategy because maintenance of a healthy,
recovered grizzly population depends on the effective continuation of
many partnerships to manage and conserve the Northern Continental Divide
Ecosystem grizzly bear population and its habitat," said Noreen Walsh,
Mountain-Prairie regional director for FWS. "By involving the public, we
aim to arrive at a scientifically based strategy that not only ensures
the persistence of grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide
Ecosystem, but also works for the people living in the places that
grizzlies call home."
The draft strategy spells out management and monitoring of the grizzly bear population and habitat upon delisting.
Noting that humans are the leading cause of grizzly deaths
worldwide, the strategy seeks ways to prevent and respond to human-bear
conflicts and mitigate impacts through habitat protections.
The grizzly population in the Northern Continental Divide, which
includes Glacier National Park, adjacent areas in Canada and the Bob
Marshall Wilderness Complex, now numbers 1,000 and continues to grow,
FWS said.
FWS in 2007 delisted grizzlies in the Yellowstone National Park
region, but protections were reinstated in 2009 by a federal judge in
Montana who ruled Interior had failed to prove that a decline in
whitebark pine -- a key food source for grizzlies -- would not threaten
the species' survival.
Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last summer assured Wyoming
Gov. Matt Mead (R) that he would try again to delist the Yellowstone
population by 2014 (Greenwire, July 24, 2012).