The Biden administration’s plan to reintroduce grizzly bears in the North Cascade Range in north-central Washington is meeting with opposition from legislators, local communities and ranchers.

The species is federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, but there haven’t been any grizzly bears in the area since 1996, said Sigrid Johannes, director of the Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association government affairs.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to introduce grizzlies as a nonessential experimental population under Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act.

The agency would transplant bears in the area and wants to see the population grow and take root in Washington, she said.

“Obviously, that poses a lot of concerns for producers … we are opposing this rulemaking,” she said during the latest “Beltway Beef” podcast.

First, this is not a very sensible way to go about conserving the species, she said.

Initially, there’s no diversity there because the bears are all translocating from existing recovery zones, she told Capital Press.

Later, there’s the possibility that bears in the North Cascade ecosystem reproduce with bears either from the Selkirk region of Idaho or from Canada.

“So really, USFWS is ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t.’ If the bears intermingle and reproduce, this is not a true distinct population. If the bears don’t intermingle and reproduce, they will not strengthen the pool of the species,” she said.

“It’s the peril of artificially forcing a larger population of individuals,” she said.

Flawed rule

The other issue is the economic harm to producers, she said.

“It’s kind of a flawed rule from a conservation standpoint, but it is certainly a flawed rule from a producer’s standpoint. Grizzly bears are an apex predator, they are omnivorous,” she said.

The Biden administration is taking a lethal and difficult-to-manage predator species and “plopping” it in the backyard of rural communities against their consistent and loud opposition, she said.

Reintroduction poses a couple of impacts for livestock producers specifically. There’s depredation, obviously, with bears killing and consuming livestock. There’s also the safety threat to producers, which can’t be discounted, she said.

Producer safety

“Grizzly bears tend to hibernate at higher elevations. They go into their dens and then they emerge typically between March and May, which is exactly the time when public lands grazing permittees are turning out cattle onto their allotments,” she said.

Bears will be coming out at their most aggressive point in the year in the same areas where permittees are trailing their cattle to summer grazing allotments, she said.

“So you can see the very obvious risk there to the people, to families who are living in these communities and to livestock,” she said.

Also worth noting is the financial stress that comes from the presence of a predator. It’s not just the kill itself, it’s also the stress of having them around, she said.

“Cattle are slower to gain weight, they have more trouble with pregnancy. They might change their grazing, … their distribution on your grazing allotment or on … your home pasture,” she said.

All that adds up to difficulties in the operation, lost revenue and risk to producers, she said.

Recovery zones

Recovery zones

Recovery zones

• The Greater Yellowstone, referred to as GYE, in northwestern Wyoming, eastern Idaho and southwestern Montana

• The Northern Continental Divide, referred to as NCDE, of north-central Montana

• The North Cascades area of north-central Washington

• The Selkirks, referred to as SE, area of northern Idaho, northeast Washington and southeast British Columbia

• The Cabinet-Yaak, referred to as CYE, area of northwestern Montana and northern Idaho

• The Bitterroot, referred to as BE, in the Bitterroot Mountains of central Idaho and western Montana

Currently, there are at least 1,923 individuals in the 48 contiguous states, with 727 in the GYE demographic.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service