MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: LOUISA WILLCOX, PROJECT COORDINATOR DAVID ELLENBERGER, MEDIA COORDINATOR

NOVEMBER 15, 1999 THE BEAR TRUTH: ONCE THE HABITAT IS GONE, SO IS THE GRIZZLY
Sierra Club hands U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 15,000 public comments

MISSOULA, MT . . . Today, the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project demonstrated significant public support for recovery of the grizzly bear by submitting 15,000 public comments aimed at protecting grizzly bear habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices in Missoula. The comments were personally delivered to USFWS Recovery Coordinator, Christopher Servheen, in his office at the University of Montana. The nation's oldest and largest grassroots conservation organization collected the postcard comments over the summer at tabling locations throughout Yellowstone National Park from visitors all over the world concerned with protecting one of the last grizzly bear populations in the lower-48 states. Patagonia outlet stores across the country also collected several thousand postcards this fall for Sierra Club's comment drive.

"We are handing in postcards today from all 50 states and numerous foreign countries that want to see grizzly bears and their habitat protected in perpetuity," stated Louisa Willcox, Project Coordinator for the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project.

After successful litigation in 1995 by conservationists concerned with the future of the threatened grizzly, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was required to revise its recovery plan to protect habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Today the public comment period ended for the USFWS' "Draft Habitat Criteria," a document the agency first released in July of this year.

Following the listing of the grizzly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, the USFWS delineated an inadequate "Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone," essentially a line around public land (consisting of 9.029 square miles) where agencies focus recovery efforts and habitat protections. Last year alone, 62% of all bear-human conflicts occurred outside of the recovery zone, revealing that bears are using adjacent habitat. The Sierra Club believes that the artificial 'recovery zone' (a management approach used on no other endangered species in this country) should be abandoned and that grizzly bears should simply be protected in the habitat where they are now found. Furthermore, if recovery is to occur, key linkage zones to the north and west of Yellowstone must also be kept open so that Yellowstone bears can connect to other remaining grizzly populations in these areas.

"We recently discovered that within habitat currently used by bears: 5 million acres of federal land are protected, while 3.5 million acres are not - and much of that is currently at risk of development," Willcox points out. Development threats include private land development, clearcutting and road building, and ORV use, as well as threats to the 4 key grizzly food sources - Yellowstone cutthroat trout, army cutworm moths, white bark pine nuts, and bison. These key foods are all at some level of risk to introduced species/disease, climate change, or poor management programs in the GYE. Of particular concern is white bark pine, which is increasingly infested with an introduced pathogen, blister rust; significant losses of this critical food source are anticipated in the next few decades.

"Hopefully the comments we have delivered today send a clear message to the federal agencies charged with protecting the grizzly that we need stronger and more extensive habitat measures in order to protect the bear," Willcox concluded.

************************************************************************