"Big, Bad and Grizzly"

“Last evening, the 'Nature' series on PBS presented a show about the return of a viable population of grizzly bears to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

saying the numbers have risen from a low of maybe 200 in the 1970's to possibly 600 now, that the few that were there in the 1970's had become dependent upon garbage dumps for sustenance but when garbage was no longer provided many starved but the survivors relearned survival routines to find natural food in that area.

And now, having reached or exceeded the carrying capacity of the backcountry there and being more comfortable around people after 30 years of no legal grizzly hunting are venturing more into surrounding ranchland and rapidly developing rural communities there.

So a question:

Would you favor limiting the population of grizzly bears in that area (thru legal hunting - say 100 bear permits per year @ $100,000 per permit with the proceeds to go for conservation efforts)

or

would you favor limiting human populations in that area (by buying out ranches and rural communities and abandoning many roads in that area including at least some of the road network in Yellowstone N.P.)?

I am in favor of the latter alternative with an eventual 'Wildland' expanse for grizzlies reaching from Cloud Peak Wilderness, Wyoming to Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon with the abandoning of most roads in between and the complete fencing of Interstate Highway 15 with wildlife underpasses.
last edited: 10/31/05 5:56:23 AM”

“I would expect the fee's to be that, which are already in place, for the statewide hunting. That is already enough. If people want to hike in the areas, or live there that is their choice. We use the pro choice method on humans!
last edited: 10/31/05 5:58:53 AM”

“Note: There are considerable oil and gas resources in NW Wyoming and for the next decade or 2 these resources could be exploited (they will run out before long) and a percentage of the proceeds could be used to finance the buyout of the ranchers and rural communities which if conducted on a willing seller - willing buyer basis will be a slow and expensive process but not impossible over the long term. I expect property values there will crash at some point (when the oil and gas are depleted and when ranching becomes economically unviable).
last edited: 10/31/05 6:22:04 AM”

“Further - The several large communities in that area like Jackson and Cody obviously to large and expensive (and owned by very influential people) to buy out could be completely fenced.

And while writing about pie-in-the-sky utopian notions considering the grizzly was more at home on the Plains than in the mountains

a great natural reserve extending from the Sandhills of Nebraska thru the Black Hills, the Bighorns, Yellowstone, the Sawtooths, Hells Canyon, the Blue Mountains and clear to the east slopes of the Cascades at Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson would be cool

but of course would costs more than the Iraq War and no possibility of this political will ever happening..
last edited: 11/01/05 6:04:08 AM”