Panel tackles future of Idaho grizzlies

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published October 2, 2001

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho -- So few grizzlies roam the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak ranges that conservation biologists call them "the walking dead."

Approximately 50 bears remain in the Selkirk range, which crosses into British Columbia. About 35 inhabit the Cabinet-Yaaks.

"We are very close to zero in this part of the world," Louisa Willcox, the Sierra Club's grizzly bear ecosystems project coordinator said. "The great being who created the great bear appears to have an interest in presenting us with a paradox and a test: The bears are easy to extirpate, and hard to recover."

Without better protections, the bears could be gone from the area within 50 to 100 years, said Paul Paquet, large carnivore coordinator for the World Wildlife Fund in Canada.

Willcox and Paquet were part of a panel on grizzly bear recovery put on this past weekend by the Idaho Conservation League. About 70 people from Idaho, Montana, Alberta and British Columbia attended the conference.

Grizzlies are vulnerable for a number of reasons, Willcox said. Females do not reproduce until age 6, bearing one or two cubs every other year. He said the cubs are slow starters, needing several years of maternal care before they can survive on their own.

When "Christy," a 200-pound 3-year-old was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in the Yaak Valley last year, it was a tremendous loss for recovery efforts, Willcox said.

"They've got a mortality problem they can't sustain," she said. "The loss of any population, especially a female coming of age, is difficult."

Speakers also took Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to task for his resistance to reintroducing grizzlies to the Selway-Bitterroot range.

"I think we need to ask ourselves: Do we want to have grizzlies as part of the landscape? Are we willing to make those choices?" Willcox said. That's a tough question in Bonners Ferry, which sits at the edge of grizzly habitat in the Selkirk range.

Wayne Wakkimen, who works for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said he thinks the community is making strides in discussing endangered species issues. When he moved to Bonners Ferry 11 years ago, a local radio station played a commercial purporting to be the sound of wind rushing through empty buildings downtown. People feared that environmental protections would wipe out the local economy.

"Those dire predictions didn't come through. Bonners Ferry is still here," said Wakkimen, a wildlife research biologist. "I think there's a recognition that there are going to be endangered species. The community is becoming a participant in the discussions."

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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