New Plans - They got the Wolves - now they want GRIZZLIES

[elkaholic]

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/2014/06/18/wildlife-group-seeks-return-grizzly-bears-west/10828671/

 

 

 

An environmental group called on federal wildlife managers Wednesday to update a decades-old recovery plan for grizzly bears to ensure the animal's return to the Grand Canyon and other areas of the West.

The Center for Biological Diversity, in a petition filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accused the agency of using a fragmented approach as it tries to recover the threatened species. Efforts are currently focused on a fraction of the bear's historic range, but the petition identifies 110,000 square miles around the West that could provide suitable habitat.

Those areas include a forested region straddling the Arizona-New Mexico line, the Grand Canyon, the Sierra Nevada in California, and parts of Utah and Colorado.

The recovery plan for grizzlies dates to 1993. The Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson, says the plan needs to consider recent research that questions the long-term viability of the current grizzly population.

"The science is clear that, if we're serious about recovering grizzly bears, we need more populations around the West and more connections between them so they don't fall prey to inbreeding and so they have a chance of adapting to a warming world," said Noah Greenwald, director of the center's endangered-species program.

A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the agency had not received the petition. He did not comment on whether the agency had any existing plans to update the grizzly's recovery plan.

The agency did state as part of a review done in 2011 that the recovery plan was outdated and needed to consider other areas as potential habitat.

According to the agency, an estimated 50,000 grizzlies roamed between the Pacific Ocean and Great Plains in the early 1800s. Their numbers were drastically reduced as more pioneers headed west. By 1975, when the bears were listed, only six of the 37 separate populations that were present just 50 years earlier remained.

Today, grizzlies are found in five areas, including the Yellowstone region and along the northern Continental Divide.

Federal wildlife managers have had mixed success in trying to reintroduce larger species, such as the gray wolf.

Greenwald acknowledged there would be some opposition to the grizzly, but he said there seems to be more reverence surrounding the bear.

"You drive around Montana and it's grizzly this and grizzly that," he said. "And in California, they're on the state flag. They're just such an iconic animal."

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

i vote polar bears back in the san fran peaks, we can make snow for them and the skiers

[camoremi]

I'd rather see the grizzly reintroduced than the Mexican wolf

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

dude, i do alot of solo backcountry stuff and i say heck no to grizz. hard enough to sleep without them

[ctafoya]

I've heard some rumors from some people that live in the Alpine area that a male and female were introduced a few years back. This was one of those I know a guy that knows a guy that said his friend knows about something. Probably BS but you never know.

[camoremi]

dude, i do alot of solo backcountry stuff and i say heck no to grizz. hard enough to sleep without them

Gotta sleep with one eye open lol

[DesertBull]

dude, i do alot of solo backcountry stuff and i say heck no to grizz. hard enough to sleep without them

You could be the next Timothy Treadwell, Brother to the Bear. Now better known as Bear Poop.

[AZP&Y]

These pics were taken at 35 Yards @ Brooks Falls Alaska. Ain't nothing like gettin that close to grizz.

 

We were the only ones in the Brooks campground which has an electric fence around it.

 

Slept like a baby after a 70 mile kayak trip in bear country. savanoski loop!

 

 

Az is not and never will be ready for the reintroduction of the "grizz"

 

Az

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Wow great shot, and what a great trip to do.

[4Falls]

Just when you think they've bottomed out on stupidity... they reveal a whole new level.

[Edge]

Azp&y

 

Makes my bear encounters seemingly warm and fuzzy,

[AverageJoe]

Its been less than 100 years since grizzlies roamed arizona.

[AZP&Y]

Wow great shot, and what a great trip to do.

 

Azp&y

 

Makes my bear encounters seemingly warm and fuzzy,

After a dozen trips to AK, it's always been the Sow with cubs that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

 

This trip was once in a lifetime experience . At the time . Katmai natl park did not allow firearms. Obama did sign into legislation and now it's legal. Only thing he's done in 6 years.LOL

 

The "thought" of reintroduction is romantic in nature, but lacks the true sense of what this beast represents and is capable of. If it were to come true ( which it won't) it would change the way you camp, hike,hunt,fish and travel in the backcountry. Not to mention we are in a drought and the 800lb grizz sitting at your doorstep at your weekend retreat in Heber, would not be well received.

 

Too many people in Az and not enough habitat that is conducive to the success of this incredible creature.

[biglakejake]

anybody here read much ?

 

david brown-the grizzly in the southwest, the last grizzly

 

montague stevens-meet mr. grizzly

 

slim ellison-cowboys under the mogollon rim

 

rick bass-the lost grizzlies

 

bob householder-the grizzly bear in arizona

 

 

brown and his books have been the rallying point for the reintroduction effort since at least the early 1990's, books he wrote after the last southwestern grizzly was encountered and killed by wiseman in the sangre de cristo in sept 1979.

 

the last grizzly documented to be killed in arizona was by a government predator man on baldy in 1937.

 

lee

[Snapshot]

Maybe the Grizzlies will eat the Wolves? One could only hope.