Support for Grizzly Reintroduction in the North Cascades

[retired jerry]

NOVA on PBS did a story about Grizzlies. In order to have a large enough population of Grizzlies to have enough genetic diversity to be sustainable long term, they needed to link up Yellowstone with Northern Idaho and Canada Rockies. There's a valley between Yellowstone and N Idaho that has a highway and ranches so they have to allow Grizzlies to go across. And other animals. Simple solutions like keeping gates open when they're not grazing cattle on a particular area. It would be nice to have a bridge over a tunnel under the highway, I forget if they did that.

Northern Washington probably has a good connection with N Idaho and Canada Rockies.

Yeah, as long as we don't kill them, they'll probably populate N Washington on their own.

Need to make sure there are clear migration paths.

[Aimless]

A thought, not sure how accurate it might be: Grizzlies are very intelligent, learn from experience and remember details. In order to introduce grizzlies into NCNP it would be necessary to capture and transport them, which would also require extensive negative interactions with humans. While some grizzlies might learn from negative interactions to avoid humans, others just as easily might become angry and resentful of humans.

Allowing grizzlies to reintroduce themselves into appropriate habitat, as their numbers increase and they need new ranges, seems better and safer to me. On the whole. forcibly relocating them into places where we want them, purely for reasons of our own, seems almost as bad as killing them off in the first place.

[BigBear]

I neither support game hunting for mammals just for the sake of shooting one unless you are in it for the meat, nor am I in favor of reintroducing a predator higher on the food chain than myself...especially where people live, hike or camp.

Sure, it's a warm fuzzy to try to re-establish a species that has been here since the last ice age melted away - watch it build a den, raise its pups/cubs, etc. But that warm, fuzzy feeling quickly disappears when the animal becomes a nuisance and it has to be killed. Who gets the say that an animal is a "nuisance" - simple: the game warden/rancher with the gun. That's the way it works, you learn how to make fire, you learn how to meld metal, you learn how to make gunpowder, you get to make the decisions. The the victor go the spoils. It's not ideal, but that's how it works.

Hopefully the bears, cougars and wolves that exist now can avoid man and his aim. It's a shame when the two meet...especially for the four-legged ones.

[retired jerry]

one thing good about hunting is that it makes critters fearful of humans so they're less likely to bother us?

although I'm not into hunting myself, if someone else is, and the huntee is not under threat, then fine with me

in our fight against "privatization" we need to have a coalition of users which would include hunters. and bicyclers.