95 % of Comments on Yellowstone Country Draft Grizzly Criteria Support Protecting Grizzly habitat.
BOZEMAN, MT . . . Protect the grizzly bear - that was the call from the overwhelming majority of Americans who participated in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's public comment period on the Draft Habitat-Based Recovery Criteria for the Yellowstone Ecosystem. More than 95% of nearly 17,000 respondents want better protection for the bear and its habitat. The comments, received from wildlife supporters in all 50 states and a few foreign countries, will bolster conservationists recommendations of extending habitat protections to grizzlies currently living outside of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone, providing linkage to other bear populations in Idaho and northern Montana, and maintaining federal protections granted the bear by the Endangered Species Act.
"It's amazing to witness the overwhelming support across this nation for protecting grizzly bears and their habitat," said Louisa Willcox, Project Coordinator of the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project. "Now it's up to the Fish and Wildlife Service to implement the strong habitat protections the public has asked for in Yellowstone," she concluded.
After successful litigation in 1995 by conservationists concerned with the future of the threatened grizzly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was required to take a comprehensive look at habitat protections provided in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for the bear.
In July of 1999, the USFWS issued their Draft Habitat-Based Criteria, a document in public review until mid-November of last year. The document was widely considered to be the first step by federal agencies towards delisting (or removing federal Endangered Species Act protections) for the Yellowstone grizzly bear.
"Americans seem to understand that once the habitat's gone, so is the grizzly," said Willcox. "The protection of critical wildlands around Yellowstone from logging and roading, oil and gas drilling, sprawl and off-road vehicles will be the ultimate test of whether or not we can recover the grizzly bear," she acknowledged.
The Habitat-Based Criteria document will be folded into the next step in the agencies' delisting plans. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to circulate and accept public comment on their grizzly bear "Conservation Strategy," a document that would manage the bear were it to be removed from the Endangered Species List, on March 1, 2000.
What the public had to say about grizzly bear recovery in Yellowstone:
We're hoping the USFWS continues to protect sufficient habitat and restore degraded habitat. We do not need industrial development within the bear's recovery zone. As you know, this area makes its living due to the bear, the fishing, and everything else the ecosystem offers on its own. Craig and Jackie, Blue Ribbon Flies West Yellowstone, Montana
I realize there are many economic reasons for not preserving the grizzly bear's habitat. However, the long-term benefits to our society may be greater than short-term financial rewards to a few companies. Hunters like me provide significant revenues to the areas where we hunt, which may compensate at least partially for the revenues lost by restricting commercial exploitation of our wilderness resources. Preservation of the wilderness areas appears more important for future generations than whatever gain accrues to this generation. Ernest, Captain US Navy (Retired) San Diego, California
I believe there are far too many obstacles the bear faces to be declared unendangered. Before you delist the bear, ensure that there is sufficient habitat for this far-ranging animal, as well as corridors that will enable it to not live on an island. The great bear used to roam form Canada to Mexico. It cannot survive on an island. Shana Livingston, Montana
Any thought of delisting grizzly bears at this time is clearly premature. Such an unwise action would quickly return us to our earlier starting point - a tiny remnant population in a critical danger of extinction. Please let us know what positive steps are being taken to avoid this outcome. Arthur, Professor of Biology, Emeritus Whitman College, Walla, Walla, Washington
For God's sake please help the poor grizzly bears. The bears deserve to be protected. They deserve more then some people I know and have darn near died for. Hugh, 14th Armored Division Association Ontario, California
The Fish and Wildlife Service should be working to protect the grizzly bear and its habitat, not destroying it, which your "New Plan" would do. Delisting the bear would mean that Montanans that now practice the 3 S's (shoot, shovel, shut up) could then legally practice 2 S's. What a travesty that would be. Rethink your plan, it needs it badly. Larry Phoenix, Arizona
Wildlife corridors from this recovery area to the Canadian population are critical for long-term survival of the bear. These corridors must not only be studied as Fish and Wildlife proposes, but fully protected if our great, great grandchildren will have the pleasure of hiking through grizzly country. Lest we be left with the only grizzly in the 48 states on the California state flag. Douglas Del Mar, California
The American people want the Great Bear preserved. It is a pyramid species that insures preservation of all the flora and fauna beneath it that constitute our great Western heritage. Richard, D.D.S. Jacksonville, Florida
How wonderful it would be to have future generations look back on those of us alive at the end of the twentieth century and remember our society, not for what we conquered in nature, but for what we left alone. Stacey Charleston, West Virginia