Wandering grizzly encourages bear advocates

By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer

It's not often that wildlife advocates celebrate the news of a dead grizzly bear. But that's what happened when a black bear hunter in Idaho killed a grizzly bear last week.

While they said the actual death was bad news, the good news was that the bear was there at all, in a part of Idaho where grizzlies haven't been confirmed in 61 years.

“I'm very encouraged to see that bears are finding their way back into the Bitterroot Ecosystem,” said Minette Glaser, a grizzly specialist in Missoula for Defenders of Wildlife, which has advocated transplanting bears there for many years.

If grizzlies can be reestablished in the vast wilderness of central Idaho, she said, that would be good news for the long-term health of other bear populations in Montana and Yellowstone National Park

The animal was killed a few miles north of U.S. Highway 12, in the Kelly Creek drainage about three miles west of the Montana border.

The last time a grizzly bear was confirmed in that area was in 1946, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

However, people have been trying to reintroduce grizzlies there for nearly 20 years.

“It's incredible grizzly habitat, with lots of natural foods and lots of places where people don't go very often,” said Chris Servheen, grizzly recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

That agency, along with Defenders, the National Wildlife Federation and timber and labor groups, drew up a plan in the 1990s that called for releasing 25 grizzlies in the area over a five-year period.

While the plan was controversial, all the necessary paperwork and studies have since been completed.

But when the Bush administration took over, the program was put in “suspended animation,” Servheen said. It had authority to move ahead, but no money to implement the program.

The Bitterroot ecosystem contains 4 millions acres of wilderness and lots of the food and isolation that grizzlies need.

Re-establishing grizzlies there would triple the population in the lower 48 states and provide links between the Yellowstone and Glacier National Park populations that would help those “island populations” retain genetic vigor, Glaser said.

Servheen said he had heard numerous reports of grizzlies in the area in past years, but none of them ever proved true.

The bear could have wandered in from the Northern Continental Divide population in Montana, he said, or it could have been born and raised in the area.

“I can't tell you if there are more there or if this is the last one,” he said.

DNA from the bear - a healthy male between 6 and 9 years old that weighed about 450 pounds - has been sent for analysis, but results won't be back for a couple months, Servheen said.

And that analysis might or might not say where the bear came from, he said.

He's hoping to find about $40,000 to set up remote cameras and bait stations, where bear hair could be snagged and its DNA analyzed.

“We could easily do that if we get funding,” he said.

For right now, all that's known for sure is that one grizzly has been found in the ecosystem.

But one bear doesn't create a “population,” especially when it's dead.

Confirming the presence of a grizzly in that part of Idaho is encouraging, Servheen and Glaser said, but it would take many years for a significant grizzly population to establish itself there, especially since females are less likely than males to move there on their own.

Servheen said he'd like to see people start talking about the reintroduction program again.

“It's really intriguing and hopefully it will jumpstart the whole Bitterroot issue,” said. “There's no reason bears shouldn't be in there, other than we killed them all.”

The area has been posted with warnings telling hunters to make sure they can tell a grizzly from a black bear, and advising them the grizzlies are protected, Servheen said.

Yellowstone-area grizzlies were removed earlier this year from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. Other bears in Montana and Idaho remain protected.

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