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Move to take Yellowstone's grizzlies off list stirs debate ENDANGERED SPECIES: Critic says habitat for bears needs to be safeguarded. By JULIET EILPERIN The Washington Post Published: November 20, 2005 Last Modified: November 20, 2005 at 04:42 AM WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration last week took the first step toward removing Yellowstone's grizzly bears, a living icon of the American West, from the nation's endangered species list. The proposal to delist grizzly bears in the area surrounding Yellowstone National Park, which has alarmed some environmentalists, highlights the contrasting views of the 32-year-old Endangered Species Act. Proponents of the government's move say the grizzly's recovery marks a rare victory for the controversial law; others say the decision may undermine protections for a still-vulnerable group of animals. Yellowstone boasts the largest grizzly population in the Lower 48 states. Grizzlies are thriving in Alaska, where more than 30,000 of them live. If the administration goes ahead with dropping the bears' current "threatened" status -- a move that would not take place until the end of 2006 at the earliest -- officials in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would be free to allow limited hunting of grizzlies and would not have to maintain the same level of protection on the grizzlies' habitat. The government would continue to monitor how state and federal authorities manage the land where the bears live to ensure their survival. Craig Manson, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks at the Interior Department, said the agency considers Yellowstone's grizzly population, which has rebounded from a low of roughly 200 in 1982 to more than 600 today, "recovered." He added that federal biologists have informed him "adequate habitat and adequate habitat protections are in place" for the bears. "We know more about this population of grizzly bears than any population of grizzly bears anywhere," Manson said, adding the department will monitor the animals' health for five years after they come off the list. "We're going to have an excellent picture of the health of this population well into the future." But Louisa Wilcox, who directs the Natural Resources Defense Council's wild bears project, said delisting would jeopardize the grizzlies' critical habitat. The bears range over nearly 9 million acres in and around the national park, she said, but the administration's proposal only covers a six million-acre habitat. "We would love to see the grizzly bear delisted, but it's not ready," Wilcox said, adding that one-third of the bears' current habitat could be opened to drilling, logging and human development. "If you want to protect bears for future generations, you have to protect the habitat they need. This plan doesn't do it." The public will have 90 days to comment on the proposal. If the administration goes ahead with taking Yellowstone's grizzlies off the list, it will become the 18th endangered species to recover under the Endangered Species Act. Nine endangered species have gone extinct, and the government has delisted 13 species that were listed erroneously. No one questions that Yellowstone's grizzlies have rebounded over the past three decades since they were listed -- the population has been growing at a rate of 4 to 7 percent a year for several years -- in part because state and federal officials abolished trash dumps that used to lure bears and bring them into dangerous contact with humans. National Wildlife Federation senior wildlife biologist Sterling Miller, who spent 21 years studying grizzlies in Alaska, said the time has come to take Yellowstone's bears off the list. "You can't immunize them against everything bad that can possibly happen," Miller said. "That's a prescription for a permanent listing." |
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