« California Condor Craving Coastal Carrion | Main | Funny Phrases & Silly Searches »

November 15, 2005

ESA: Yellowstone Bears Get Bumped

It is with bittersweet feelings that I write up this bit of news. The current administration has decided that the grizzlies that live in the wilderness around Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming are living in healthy enough populations to delist them from the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

So why bittersweet? Is this not a clear success of the ESA? Well, yes, I suppose it does show this, although the maintenance of this population - a population that is still only several hundred higher than when they were listed back in the late seventies - is still of concern to me. The bear population in the area is still far, far below what it was 50 or 100 years ago. And there was quite a big fuss amongst the local hunters when the bear was listed in the first place, at a time when things looked very bleak for the Yellowstone grizzly.

But the ESA doesn't just protect endangered creatures through law enforcement, it also provides funding for protection programs. Bear programs are especially expensive - it's not just about building bear boxes. There are relocation programs for problem bears. I'd like to believe that the local officials have alloted resources to manage these tasks on their own, but it makes me uneasy. Yosemite has to constantly change their bear program to keep up with the bears, who learn quickly how to circumvent rangers' bear-proofing tactics. But also, it's important to note that the grizzly is not going to be delisted completely just yet, just the population groups around the Yellowstone region.

Noting that the grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone area has thrived in recent years, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced that it plans to remove federal protections for the animals in the areas around the national park.

“A population that was once plummeting towards extinction is now recovered,” Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in making the announcement. “These bears are now no longer endangered” and should be removed from the Endangered Species Act listing.

More At: MSNBC: U.S. to lift safety net for Yellowstone grizzlies

On the other hand, there are many other species that would benefit from support through the ESA. Contrary to popular belief, not every threatened species makes it onto the list, and so there's something of a backlog. As long as there is some sort of maintenance plan for monitoring the health of the de-listed species, the bears should be relatively safe. They could always be re-added if things went south again, right?

I often talk about grizzlies on this blog. If you'd like to listen or read more, feel free to check out:

LISTEN: PERLGURL.ORG Podcast: The Grizzly Truth

READ: The Bear-Human Conflict - Part I and Part II
READ: Lions, Ligers & Bears - Oh My!
READ: DNA Of The Cave Bear

Posted by sorsha at November 15, 2005 12:30 PM