Post by Woody Williams on Aug 7, 2005 20:43:04 GMT -5
By Bob Moen
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:46 p.m. July 11, 2005
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Darlene Vaughan says she's glad grizzly bear populations in the Yellowstone National Park area have recovered to healthy levels – but the idea of allowing them to wander through her backyard is something else entirely.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposed bear management plan that would set boundaries on where the grizzly bear will be allowed to roam in the state. For Vaughan, the proposed boundary comes too close to her home on a ranch outside Lander in west-central Wyoming.
"The grizzly bear definitely attacks people, and we just have too many people who live in this part of the state," she said Monday.
Setting habitat boundaries for the large carnivore is another part of a more than 20-year effort to help grizzly bear populations recover in the West. Grizzly bears in the region are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. But the Yellowstone-area population has reached a level where federal wildlife officials plan to propose delisting the bear soon.
Residents like Vaughan, who already live among wolves, elk and other wildlife, say the grizzly brings a man-eating dimension that doesn't exist in the debate over other wildlife.
Conservationists dismiss the fears as hysteria and argue the grizzlies should have much greater freedom and space to roam the Wyoming wilds than what the plan allows.
More than 600 grizzly bears inhabit the area in and around Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Delisting the bear would mean the states would take over responsibility for keeping grizzly numbers from falling dangerously low again. Each state must have a federally approved plan before delisting occurs.
Under the Wyoming plan, the grizzly bear would have its primary habitat in Yellowstone and surrounding national forest and wilderness areas. The bears also would be allowed to move into most other U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service areas within roughly 50- to 100-miles of the park where there are few people and other potential conflicts with humans. That would include an area north of Snake River Canyon and the Hoback River, and the portion of the Wind River Range north of Boulder Creek west of Lander, and east to near Cody.
However, the state Game and Fish Department acknowledges in its plan that it is not possible to keep the bears from moving closer to where more people live. The management plan would "discourage" grizzly bears from dispersing farther to adjacent areas by allowing controlled hunting and relocating bears to approved areas.
The Vaughan ranch is about 100 miles southeast of Yellowstone and near the edge of the proposed boundary.
Vaughan said she is fearful of a grizzly bear attack. She favors delisting the bear, she said, but not at any price.
"It's got to be a plan that we can all live with so that the people of this part of the state that have to live with the bears and not the plan can afford to do business," she said.
But Steve Thomas, a regional director with the Sierra Club, said the organization opposes delisting the grizzly now and does not want defined boundaries on grizzly bear habitat.
"I don't really like drawing boundaries for wildlife," he said.
Fears of grizzly bears attacking people are greatly exaggerated, Thomas said. People are far more likely to die from drowning, automobile wrecks or lightning than from a grizzly attack, he said.
"It's not even on the same scale," he said.
Despite the Sierra Club's opposition to the delisting, Thomas said Wyoming's proposed management plan is a "pretty good effort to try to deal with all the political forces they're being whipsawed by."
The management plans proposed by each state must be approved by the federal government. The number of grizzly bears to occupy the area around Yellowstone has yet to be determined.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
2:46 p.m. July 11, 2005
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Darlene Vaughan says she's glad grizzly bear populations in the Yellowstone National Park area have recovered to healthy levels – but the idea of allowing them to wander through her backyard is something else entirely.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposed bear management plan that would set boundaries on where the grizzly bear will be allowed to roam in the state. For Vaughan, the proposed boundary comes too close to her home on a ranch outside Lander in west-central Wyoming.
"The grizzly bear definitely attacks people, and we just have too many people who live in this part of the state," she said Monday.
Setting habitat boundaries for the large carnivore is another part of a more than 20-year effort to help grizzly bear populations recover in the West. Grizzly bears in the region are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. But the Yellowstone-area population has reached a level where federal wildlife officials plan to propose delisting the bear soon.
Residents like Vaughan, who already live among wolves, elk and other wildlife, say the grizzly brings a man-eating dimension that doesn't exist in the debate over other wildlife.
Conservationists dismiss the fears as hysteria and argue the grizzlies should have much greater freedom and space to roam the Wyoming wilds than what the plan allows.
More than 600 grizzly bears inhabit the area in and around Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Delisting the bear would mean the states would take over responsibility for keeping grizzly numbers from falling dangerously low again. Each state must have a federally approved plan before delisting occurs.
Under the Wyoming plan, the grizzly bear would have its primary habitat in Yellowstone and surrounding national forest and wilderness areas. The bears also would be allowed to move into most other U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service areas within roughly 50- to 100-miles of the park where there are few people and other potential conflicts with humans. That would include an area north of Snake River Canyon and the Hoback River, and the portion of the Wind River Range north of Boulder Creek west of Lander, and east to near Cody.
However, the state Game and Fish Department acknowledges in its plan that it is not possible to keep the bears from moving closer to where more people live. The management plan would "discourage" grizzly bears from dispersing farther to adjacent areas by allowing controlled hunting and relocating bears to approved areas.
The Vaughan ranch is about 100 miles southeast of Yellowstone and near the edge of the proposed boundary.
Vaughan said she is fearful of a grizzly bear attack. She favors delisting the bear, she said, but not at any price.
"It's got to be a plan that we can all live with so that the people of this part of the state that have to live with the bears and not the plan can afford to do business," she said.
But Steve Thomas, a regional director with the Sierra Club, said the organization opposes delisting the grizzly now and does not want defined boundaries on grizzly bear habitat.
"I don't really like drawing boundaries for wildlife," he said.
Fears of grizzly bears attacking people are greatly exaggerated, Thomas said. People are far more likely to die from drowning, automobile wrecks or lightning than from a grizzly attack, he said.
"It's not even on the same scale," he said.
Despite the Sierra Club's opposition to the delisting, Thomas said Wyoming's proposed management plan is a "pretty good effort to try to deal with all the political forces they're being whipsawed by."
The management plans proposed by each state must be approved by the federal government. The number of grizzly bears to occupy the area around Yellowstone has yet to be determined.
