The federal government’s
proposal to take grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem
off the Endangered Species Act’s threatened species list
represents a tremendous achievement. It also demonstrates
America’s enduring commitment to wildlife conservation.
The National Wildlife Federation — one of the
nation’s largest conservation groups at 4 million members and
supporters — has reached this conclusion only after a
thorough review of the facts and documents on which the proposal
was based. Two major reasons led us to our decision:
First is the success on the ground. Because of the law’s
protections and the focused management efforts it has stimulated,
the grizzly population in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem has
been growing at a rate of 4 percent to 7 percent a year for at
least the last 15 years. There are now more than 600 bears in the
population, and all demographic and distribution parameters in the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Recovery Plan have been met
or even exceeded.
Second, according to the Endangered
Species Act, once a species meets the goals set for its recovery,
federal protection as a listed species must cease as long as
adequate regulatory mechanisms are in place to assure that the
species will not again decline. To assure adequate regulatory
mechanisms, a comprehensive strategy has been developed by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, and the state fish
and wildlife agencies in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. This
comprehensive strategy specifies the habitat and population
protections that will protect the grizzly population and habitat
following delisting. After a careful review of this strategy, we
have concluded it represents a good deal for grizzly bears.
Central to the strategy is the identification of a
5.9-million-acre Primary Conservation Area, where grizzly bears
will be the management priority of land managers. The standard for
this landscape, which is 98 percent federally owned, is that secure
habitat will be maintained at 1998 levels, and no new development
will be permitted without compensatory reductions in human
activities elsewhere.
Based on the amount of secure
habitat and the bear population it can support, leading researchers
have estimated that there is a 99.2 percent probability that the
Greater Yellowstone bear population will persist for 100 years, and
a 96 percent probability of persistence for 500 years.
But there’s much more to the strategy than protecting the
core habitat. The bear-management plans adopted by Montana, Idaho
and Wyoming establish goals for expanding the grizzly range far
beyond the intensively protected core area. Through these state
plans, and a Forest Service commitment to adhere to them, an
additional 6 million acres of habitat, with different levels of
protection, are available for Yellowstone’s growing grizzly
population.
Beyond the biology and the management plans,
the future for Yellowstone’s grizzlies is bright because many
other initiatives are underway that will benefit both bears and the
people that live with them. The Gallatin National Forest, for
example, with support from the National Forest Foundation, is
bear-proofing campgrounds outside the core, so conflicts will be
avoided even as the bear population grows.
The Predator
Conservation Alliance and the Natural Resource Conservation Service
are preventing bear attacks on livestock by providing ranchers with
herders and range-riders. Defenders of Wildlife continues to offer
financial assistance to landowners who propose projects that reduce
bear conflicts. The Sierra Club is working with resorts such as Big
Sky in Montana on better sanitation and educational outreach.
None of these programs depend on listing under the
Endangered Species Act, and all will continue after grizzlies are
delisted.
Following delisting, bears across the Northern
Rockies may benefit most from the reordering of agency priorities
that will occur. The state fish and wildlife agencies that take
over the management lead in Yellowstone will have the primary
responsibility for sustaining the existing population and expanding
it into new habitats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will then
be free to turn more attention toward other grizzly bear
populations that will continue to be listed under the Endangered
Species Act. Bear conservation in the Cabinet-Yaak, the Selkirks,
the North Cascades, and, most importantly, the Selway-Bitterroots,
has long lagged far behind that in the Yellowstone.
Thanks to the success in the Yellowstone area, it is now possible
to increase the focus of the Fish and Wildlife Service on these
areas. The success in Yellowstone stands as a sharp rebuttal to
those who claim the Endangered Species Act doesn’t work.
America’s largest carnivore, a species that requires millions
of acres of high-quality habitat, has been recovered in one key
area through the hard work of many people, organizations and
agencies.
Tom France is a contributor to
Writers on the Range, a service of High Country
News (hcn.org). He is an attorney who has worked for the
National Wildlife Federation in Missoula, Montana, for 24
years.
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