http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_...atened_grizzly_bears

Fed judge says grizzlies still threatened
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer Matthew Brown, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 21, 9:40 pm ET
BILLINGS, Mont. – Facing the combined pressures of climate change, hunters and lax protections, 600 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park are going back on the threatened species list under a federal court order issued Monday.

The ruling highlighted climate change's devastation to whitebark pine forests, which produce nuts that some grizzlies rely upon as a mainstay.

With hundreds of thousands of the trees dead or dying over the last two decades, bears striking out in search of new food sources increasingly are being shot in conflicts with humans.

"There is a connection between whitebark pine and grizzly survival," U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy wrote in Monday's ruling.

Hunting for grizzlies is illegal. But at least 20 were killed last year by hunters acting in self-defense or after mistaking them for other animals.

The greater Yellowstone area of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming has one of the densest concentrations of grizzlies in the lower 48 states. The animals were declared recovered in March 2007 after bouncing back from near-extermination last century.

At the time, the grizzly bear program was touted by the Bush administration as a model framework for restoring at-risk species, successfully balancing conservation and the pressures of human development.

But in his ruling, Molloy sharply criticized the rationale behind the decision and ordered the Obama administration to immediately restore the animal's threatened status.

The 46-page ruling resolves a lawsuit brought by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a Bozeman, Mont., group that had argued the bruins' recovery remained tenuous. A separate lawsuit in federal court in Idaho still is pending.

Molloy cited as a key factor in his decision the decline of whitebark pine, which has suffered widespread damage from forest fires, pine beetles and other factors that researchers say are exacerbated by a warming climate.

Government researchers have made similar links. However, those results were downplayed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its 2007 decision.

"There is a disconnect between the studies the agency relies on here and its conclusions," Molloy wrote.

Molloy also said that state and federal conservation plans meant to protect Yellowstone-area grizzlies were inadequate. He said the government relied too heavily on population monitoring and failed to spell out what steps would be taken if grizzly numbers started to fall.

A Fish and Wildlife spokesman said Monday that Molloy's ruling was under review. Grizzlies were first listed as endangered in 1975. The government has spent more than $20 million on its effort to restore the species.

"We're going to take some time with this ruling because it's so significant," Fish and Wildlife spokesman Matt Kales said. "This is obviously a pretty big policy matter for us. Our first and foremost concern remains with the status of the bear."

Wyoming U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican, called Molloy's ruling an "abuse" of the Endangered Species Act.

"Subverting the Endangered Species Act through judicial activism under the auspice of climate change would be laughable if the impacts weren't so dire for Wyoming's public land users," Lummis said.

Prior to Molloy's ruling, the concern in Wyoming had been that there were too many bears, not too few, Gov. David Freudenthal said Monday.

The conservation director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Craig Kenworthy, said threats to grizzlies "are likely to accelerate" as climate change intensifies and more tree-killing beetles survive milder winters.

It's unknown how many of Yellowstone's grizzlies are heavily dependent on whitebark pine, said Gregg Losinski with Idaho Fish and Game.

"Yes it was a concern, but as far as a food source it never was found universally across the ecosystem for all the bears," said Losinski, member of a federal-states coordinating committee that oversees the region's grizzlies.

Four other groups totaling about 900 grizzlies — all in the Northwest __ have never lost their threatened status.

Full grown male grizzlies can weigh 800 pounds and stand 8 feet tall. Most are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals.

As many as 50,000 of the animals once ranged the western half of the United States — striking terror in early European settlers who routinely shot, poisoned and trapped grizzlies until they were reduced to less than 2 percent of their historic range.

The Yellowstone-area population has grown from an estimated 200 animals in 1981 to more than 600 today.

Environmentalists said Monday's ruling underscored the need for government agencies to pay more heed to the damage climate change can cause.

Climate change was cited in the 2008 listing of polar bears as a threatened species, because warmer temperatures has melted sea ice that the bears depend on. And in 2006, concerns over climate change led to the listing of two species of coral, staghorn and elkhorn.

"The decline of the whitebark pine is one more wake-up call that we urgently need to address the cause of many species' impending extinctions," said Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity. Robinson's group is a plaintiff in the Idaho grizzly lawsuit that remains pending.

I dont have any facts or research to back this up. But i have a feeling there are a whole lot more than 600 grizzlies in the entire Greater yellowstone area. I've seen too many grizzlies in that area not even looking for them to believe that there are only 600.

Nuts!? Why those bears are so fat on Elk, Deer and garbage they're likely to weigh up to 1,000 pounds. No one is talking about the decline of native Elk and Mule deer in the park. Gardiner, MT holds a mere fraction of the deer and elk herd it once had. Add the Wolves and there's your evidence for endangered ugulates. What a 3 ring circus........

What the hell is "whitebark pine"? I have lived worked, and played in grizz country in NW MT my whole life and have never heard of such a tree. When I was young to see a grizz was quite rare nowadays it's not uncommon to see them usually in a dumpster. This ruling has nothing to do with the grizz it's about the endangered species act which is used by the green Nazi's to shut down logging ,mining , and access to public lands.

surprise,surprise. I think these tpyes of ruling should be ruled on by a panel of judges,not one that thinks the world rotates around him or her, for all people have different beliefs. Too bad....

www.african-montana-taxidermy.com

Dear DMB:

I think it is high time to re-play the South Park episode on hunting with the line: "It's coming right for me!", and then blast the grizzly.

Self defense when you are between a grizzly and a dumpster. Works for me.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

What it comes down to from the posts I read is - Shoot a grizzlie if you see one. OK, you guys live out there and I, an Easterner, have no right to tell you otherwise. One poster spoke of seeing a grizzlie at a dumpster. I would have backed away and hoped he wouldn't come for me. {assuming I had no weapon -and maybe even then} My point is that we do all want grizzlies to survive in America. Reading of a number of 600 grizzlies in the original post doesn't fill me with confidence that grizzlies are doing just fine as a species - We are supposed to defend ourselves against dangerous animals for the sake of our property and family but as hunters we should have every desire to protect the grizzlies. Just my thoughts.

Don't believe everything you hear in the media. there are far more than 600 griz in mt.

Hell, they're in Colorado too, but he D.O.W. won't admit it.

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:
Nuts!? Why those bears are so fat on Elk, Deer and garbage they're likely to weigh up to 1,000 pounds. No one is talking about the decline of native Elk and Mule deer in the park. Gardiner, MT holds a mere fraction of the deer and elk herd it once had. Add the Wolves and there's your evidence for endangered ugulates. What a 3 ring circus........

Agree.
My question about Grizzlies, and Wolves is, where is the perspective of the Wolf and Grizzly lovers? These two animals destroy game animals; period.
So, I guess I've come to the conclusion that all of these wolf and grizzly lovers are destroyers; destroyers of all that is good, so that evil (Wolves and Grizzlies) can prevail.
We can carry that same thought to all liberals, ones who want to destroy American, and all that is good in America.

Don

quote:

What the hell is "whitebark pine"? I have lived worked, and played in grizz country in NW MT my whole life and have never heard of such a tree.

The Whitebark Pine,pinus albicaulis, is very similar to the Limber Pine, pinus flexilis,both having needles in bundles of 5 that are about the same length as the needles of the more common Lodgepole Pine, pinus contorta, which has needles in bundles of 2.

The range of Whitebark pine and Limber Pine trees overlap, however, in NW Montana, like the Whitefish Mountain Range, there are predominately more Whitebark than Limber pine trees. These trees are found at the higher elevations and usually above the lodbepole pines, fir, and larch trees.

Both Whitebark and Limber pines have a seed that is very similar the the pinon nut, or seed of the Pinon Pine,pinus edulis, which is found in the southwestern states.

These pine seeds are very high in fat content, and are a major food for bears in the fall.

I used to live in Fortine, which is about 10 miles south of Eureka, in NW Montana. I worked and hunted in the Whitefish mountains, and saw alot of Whitebark pine trees, especially on the higher ridges.

It's ironic that this liberal judge made his decision on a poor Whitebark pine seed season, when it was reported in the Jackson Hole News and Guide on July 22, 2009 that Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park biologists, including Chuck Schwartz, leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, predicted a "really good whitebark cone [crop] this year" in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

I have been around and heard of limber pine but have never heard of whitebark pine and wouldn't have known the difference. Thanks for the education. I have also spent some time in the upper whitefish area Stryker ridge, Theriot lakes, Graves creek, ect...

Let's see....temps have actually gotten cooler over the last several years and winters have not been "warmer" in that area, but the pine beetles are multiplying (which they are unfortunately) because of milder winters (that will occur in the future now according to the global warming guys), because they are "anticipating" the warmer weather and thus surviving the colder winters....and this is the reason to keep the bears on the threatened list...wow!