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Sierra Club Delivers 25,000 Petitions to Bush Administration Supporting Grizzly Bear Protection Missoula, MT – Today Sierra Club volunteers delivered over 25,000 comments on the Bush Administration’s proposal to remove Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone’s grizzly bears. This raises the total number of comments the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has received on the issue to over 150,000. Heidi Godwin of the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Project urged people to make this number even larger saying, "The comment period doesn’t end until Monday, so folks who care about grizzly bears still have time to weigh in." Throughout the comment period grizzly bear advocates have expressed concern over the proposal pointing to the "Conservation Strategy" management plan that would be implemented if de-listing occurred. "Taking away Endangered Species Act protections would leave one-third of the habitat grizzlies currently use open to exploitation and development. Do we really want to gamble with the hard won progress we’ve made when we are just starting to see this species come back from the brink of extinction?" asked Godwin. Chuck Jonkel, a noted wildlife biologist, grizzly bear researcher, educator and cofounder of the Great Bear Foundation has also expressed concern, "The grizzly bear is an irreplaceable part of Montana’s natural heritage, an icon of all that’s wild and free. Without strong habitat protections in place, the long-term survival of the bear requires the safety net of the Endangered Species Act." The Endangered Species Act has played an important role in helping to increase grizzly bear numbers in Montana. Yet the Conservation Strategy would leave huge gaps in much needed protections and the funding to implement the plan has yet to materialize. Many of the long-term protections promised in this proposal are contingent upon ongoing and increased federal and state funding and would cost one million dollars more to implement if federal protections are removed. The Yellowstone grizzly bear was first listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Yet the threats to grizzly bears and their habitat have not disappeared. In the last decade, counties around Yellowstone have grown by as much as 74 percent, bringing subdivisions, strip-malls and road networks into previously secure spaces. This makes it much more likely that bears will come into conflict with people – the number one way grizzly bears die. At the same time, key foods that bears rely on are failing due to climate change, disease and competition from introduced non-native species. And wildlands that would have been protected under President Clinton’s Roadless Rule could be "open for business" under the current administration – whether they remain unlogged, unroaded, and unavailable to oil and gas exploration is up to an administration that has not been a friend to America’s wildlife and environment. The best way to ensure that grizzlies will survive into the future is to restore them to a bigger landscape. Specific steps to achieve recovery are: 1. Establish a stable source of funding for grizzly bear management and habitat conservation. 2. Expand efforts to reduce bear-human conflicts through sanitation and public education. 3. Improve important but currently degraded habitat. 4. Protect remaining wild lands. 5. Expand the recovery area to include areas where bears currently live. 6. Connect Yellowstone grizzlies to other grizzly populations further north. The comment period on the removal of Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone’s grizzly bears won’t end until March 20th. If interested, you may submit your comment to: Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, Dr. Chris Servheen, US Fish and Wildlife Service, University Hall #309, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812 or electronically at FW6_grizzly_yellowstone@fws.gov For more information about the grizzly bear conservation, or to join Sierra Club’s Grizzly Guardian listserv, point your browser to http://www.sierraclub.org/grizzly |
