Grizzly population denied more protection

Grizzly bears in the combined Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk recovery zone number less than 100 animals

April 27, 1999
Web posted at: 11:00 AM EDT

Grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk recovery zones of Idaho, Montana and Washington are in danger of extinction but will not have their status reclassified from threatened to endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced April 22.

The agency decided that the need to protect other species, such as the Canada lynx, was a greater priority than extending the protection of a species that is already protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The analysis of this grizzly bear population was conducted in response to a U.S. District Court order stemming from a petition to change the status of the species filed by the Fund for Animals and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation.

Federal biologists concluded the population is in danger of extinction because it is small and threatened by habitat alteration and the cumulative impacts of recreation, timber harvest, mining, road construction and other human activities. In addition, it is facing potential isolation by activities across the border in Canada.

However, following established policy, the service decided not to dedicate its limited resources to reclassifying a species that is already protected under the act when other unlisted species need protection.

Because of the large number of species needing protection under the Endangered Species Act, the service uses a priority system to deal first with the species in the most serious need of protection.

According to this listing guidance, the reclassification of already listed species, such as the grizzly bear, has a lower priority than processing proposed listings of new species to the threatened and endangered species list.

At the present time, 16 additional higher priority candidate species in the Mountain-Prairie region need to be addressed, putting them ahead of any reclassifications.

"Grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk recovery zone should be classified as endangered according to our most recent data, but they are already receiving protection under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species," said Ralph Morgenweck, director for the service's Mountain-Prairie region.

"The service has to focus its resources on other species that have been proposed for listing, such as the Canada lynx or mountain plover, or are being reviewed for possible listing, before we reclassify the grizzly bear."

During the preparation of the new finding to determine whether the grizzly bear should be reclassified as endangered, biologists discovered that grizzly bears in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak recovery zones move from one zone to the other. The connection of the two zones appears to occur within British Columbia, within 20 miles of the international boundary.

This information indicates that there is possibly a genetic link among grizzly bear populations in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak areas. With this new data, the service decided to combine the two recovery zones into one zone that encompasses about 3,600 square miles of the 38,000 square miles of remaining grizzly bear habitat in the United States. Grizzly bears in the combined Cabinet-Yaak/Selkirk recovery zone number less than 100 animals.

The service still believes that movement of grizzly bears between any of the other recovery zones, which include Yellowstone, North Cascades, northern Continental Divide, and the Bitterroot, does not occur.

Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) inhabited most of the western United States and were believed to number 50,000 individuals at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s. Populations declined to less than 1,000 in the conterminous 48 states by the 1970s.

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