Grizzly Bear Reintroduction Proposal Questioned

Director of the Public Lands Council and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Government Affairs Director, Sigrid Jones says there is a proposal by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce grizzly bears in Washington State. She says the bears have not lived in this area since the mid-1990s. And says this is a nonessential experimental population. reintroduction of their concerns is of course livestock loss and injury.

Yes, so that is a very real concern. I mean, these are 800 pound apex predators. They hibernate at higher elevations up on the mountain and they come out right around, you know, March, April, May. And that's when people are turning out on their allotments. So there's there's a lot of concern about depredation on livestock. And you can look at folks in Montana who are living with bears now in Wyoming, they get them coming right up to their house right up to their barns, in their calving pastures. So it's, it's a very real problem for folks. This rule does include some leeway, or some guidelines, I guess you could say on when and how folks are able to do legal take. In our opinion, those guidelines are still way too narrow.”

Jones says that the PLC and NCBA have submitted comments asking for more clarity on why this reintroduction needs to occur in the first place, since it is a non essential and experimental population reintroduction.