Overdue

Overdue SPECIAL REPORT

State and federal agencies say it’s time to take Yellowstone region grizzly bears off the threatened species list. By Tom Dickson

IN GOOD ENOUGH SHAPE? Delisting opponents say the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly population is still at risk. State and federal biologists maintain that the population is healthy and will continue to thrive aer delisting.

16 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2016 FWP.MT.GOV/MTOUTDOORS

JAIME & LISA JOHNSON

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uring a recent late August morning, Kevin Frey drives up Paradise Valley on U.S. Highway 89 toward Yellowstone National Park. Pointing toward mountains surrounding the valley’s fields of grazing cattle, irrigated alfalfa, and newly constructed ranchettes, the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks bear management specialist says grizzlies in that high country have begun beefing up to build fat reserves for hibernation, less than three months away. The bears consume grass, forbs, berries, roots, ants, moths, small mammals, elk carcasses—you name it. Some follow the natural foods down to the foothills and valley floor, where they encounter apple trees, garbage cans, dog food, and livestock. Most ignore the human-produced temptations, but a few give in. That’s when the problems start. Many people hold strong opinions about grizzlies, from reverence to hostility. But very few, like Frey, actually work with the bears: collaring, tranquilizing, trapping, relocating, and sometimes even having to make the hard decision to euthanize those that pose a severe threat. Frey takes calls from the rancher who lost a calf, or the parents who spotted a grizzly the night before out by the garage. He works in Montana’s portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) where grizzlies and people live together, mostly in harmony but sometimes not. His job: Help resolve conflicts and prevent new ones from flaring up.

Tall and soft-spoken, with a mustache grayed in part by job stress, Frey is on the front lines of the current controversy over removing (“delisting”) the GYE grizzly bear population from the federal list of threatened species. Environmental groups, Indian tribes, and many scientists, including luminaries E. O. Wilson and Jane Goodall, say it’s too soon to end federal protection and give management authority back to Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. On the other side are federal and state wildlife agencies, with their own highly credentialed scientists, who point out that the current population of at least 717 bears far exceeds the recovery goal of 500, and conservation guarantees for sustained recovery are in place. Delisting, they say, is long overdue. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) director Dan Ashe has hailed the Yellowstone grizzly recovery as a “historic success” for wildlife conservation. The population is so healthy, in fact, that bears are now spilling out of the recovery area. As a result, surrounding states say they need more flexibility to respond to new and growing conflicts so that bears and humans can coexist. Based on studies by state and federal scientists on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, the USFWS in March 2016 proposed removing the GYE grizzly population from the list of federally protected species. The federal agency, now reviewing public comments on the proposal, has said

MONTANA OUTDOORS

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