Solid science needed for Selkirk grizzlies
BONNERS FERRY — Less than one percent of all species listed under the Endangered Species Act have been delisted in the last 40 years. Will the Selkirk, Cabinet and Yaak grizzly bears ever join those ranks?
When listed in 1975, grizzly bears were divided into recovery areas, including the Selkirks, Cabinet-Yaak, Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) and Yellowstone.
The Yellowstone grizzly bear delisting is being fought in court and the NCDE population is being proposed for delisting.
“If the NCDE is delisted, we may never get delisted,” said Tony McDermott, Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner. “That is a huge concern.”
There is concern of whether the small populations in the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak recovery areas will ever be large enough to delist.
A population study using genetics is under way in the Cabinet-Yaak recovery area and will produce an estimate of the grizzly bear population in 2014. The current estimate in the Cabinet-Yaak recovery area is over 40 grizzly bears.
The estimate in the Selkirk Mountains (both United States and Canada) is 83 grizzly bears. Approximately 35 of those grizzlies reside south of the Canadian border.
Genetic diversity and connectivity of recovery area populations are other concerns by biologists. Documented cases of movement include one male between the Selkirk Mountains and the Cabinet Mountains, one male from the Yaak to the Selkirks, and one male from the Cabinets to the NCDE.
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission made a position statement supporting the delisting of all grizzly bears throughout Idaho.
“I don’t think management will change much,” said McDermott. “We want to conserve bears but have state management.”
The Commission’s position statement broke the ground for discussion on delisting grizzly bears in Idaho.
More questions than answers for the future of grizzly bears were brought forth at the Kootenai Valley Resource Initiative Grizzly Bear subcommittee meeting on June 12.
How would the delisting process take place? Both sides at the meeting discussed whether Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak grizzlies should be included with the NCDE population delisting.
Disagreement for including the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak populations with the NCDE population is the lack of hard-core science to support those populations.
“We have great estimates,” said Dan Dinning, Boundary County Commissioner. “The science has to be good to stand in the Ninth Circuit court.”
Dinning suggested at some point conducting a DNA population study of the grizzly bears in the Selkirk Mountains.
Withstanding legal challenges on delisting is a huge concern, as the wolf and Yellowstone grizzly bear cases have proved.
“Clearly there is going to be legal stuff,” said Chip Corsi, Idaho Fish and Game.
New science and technology will provide more solid science for court challenges and will help in rewriting the Selkirk grizzly bear recovery plan.
“It is time to revise, look at new science and examine criteria,” said Wayne Kasworm, USFWS bear biologist. “Relook at techniques.”
New techniques include using the survival rates of females as a measurement of success versus a hard-fast number of grizzly bears explained Kasworm.
The Selkirk Recovery plan was drafted in 1993 when there was no population estimate for grizzly bears in the Selkirks, Cabinet-Yaak or NCDE, said Kasworm.