Posted on 09/17/2010 9:09:54 AM PDT by Palter
PASAYTEN WILDERNESS, Wash. — Past the asters and aspen and subalpine fir, past the quick, cold creeks and the huckleberry hillsides, the bear hunter stopped and cocked his tweezers.
“Here,” said Bill Gaines, a wildlife biologist for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, “is the mother lode.”
Caught on a prong of barbed wire that he had strung weeks earlier in these remote mountains was a tantalizing clue: strands of light brown bear hair.
“Oh, look at that, look at that root right there,” he said. “That’s really good.”
It will be months before DNA tests tell the full story: did those hairs belong to a black bear, a relatively common resident here, or were they snagged from the far more elusive grizzly? The last confirmed sighting of a grizzly in the North Cascades was in 1996.
Now Mr. Gaines is leading the most ambitious effort ever to document whether grizzlies still exist here — a century after fur trappers and ranchers killed them off by the hundreds — at a time when tension is high in the West over the fate of wild predators like gray wolves. While many people want the grizzlies, an endangered species, to make a comeback here, others worry that more bears will mean more conflict.
“Grizzlies are a threat to livestock and to humans,” said John Stuhlmiller, the director of government relations at the Washington State Farm Bureau. “People might think they’re neat and they might want to go see them in the zoo, but in the wild they’re not a friendly, cuddly creature.”
People whose livelihoods are not threatened by predators do not get it, Mr. Stuhlmiller said. “If my 401(k) was being raided by grizzly bears, I would think differently,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Envirowackos are a delicacy for grizzly bears, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have a few around in the Northwest.
No need to look for em. Leave some food outside,,, they’ll find you. Apex predators are *super fun* that way.
I’ve hiked through the Pasayten Wilderness. It’s very remote. During my 9-day hike, I saw no one during the middle three days. One night it snowed 6 inches...in August! If grizzleys are in WA, the Pasayten Wilderness would probably be the place.
Hmmm...so they’ll do well in Northern Mexico. I’d say a reintroduction is in order. Should be plenty to eat.
Most current employees of the USFS could be poster children for earth-first eco-loonies. They have planted lynx hair on federal land before and claimed the area should be off-limits to humanoids. I wouldn’t believe a word out of their leftist pie holes, and if there are grizzlies in the north Cascades how about leaving them alone? Just my two cents.
Most wacko are on the east coast....send some griz to central park. Also any federal forests on the east coast..see if they like it.....Lets face it, griz probably are native to all the east coast states at one time or another..Along with cougar in central park, might clean up some of the crime....
“Most wacko are on the east coast”
Probably, just because there are more people living on the east coast. But on a per capita basis, I would be willing to bet that Seattle has more wackos than anywhere else in the US. But, they are the last ones you will find in the wilderness because they are too busy driving around in their SUV’s attending envirowacko meetings.
I like gundog’s idea of reintroducing grizzlies to the southern border. Most griz like a little salsa with their meal.
Could also introduce at the border hoards of hungry pit bulls...but wall them off from the rest of the USA.
My mistake, I have also heard Seattle is quite a lefty city..Plus all the city’s in California, don’t know about Oregon...
Oregon isn’t as bad as it’s neighbors to the north and south...but that’s not saying much.
Portland is the pits. They have so many benefits that people move there from all over the country to be homeless drunks. I don’t know how this panned out, but the residents of Dignity Village (homeless village set up on government owned property) at one time demanded a seat on the city council.
The Portland Metro area is, also, home to almost half of the state’s population.
Except for Eugene, the rest of the state is pretty conservative. It’s too bad that it isn’t populated enough to make a real difference.
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