Environmental groups split over grizzlies

MISSOULA, Mont. — As the Bush administration prepares to remove Yellowstone's grizzly bears from the endangered-species list, a schism has emerged in the environmental movement over whether the bears remain at risk.

The nation's largest environmental group, the National Wildlife Federation, supports delisting the bears, whose numbers have bounced back impressively after three decades of federal protection.

But other powerful organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, are threatening to sue the Bush administration if, as expected, it removes Yellowstone grizzlies from the list.

"The recovery has been a huge success, but removing federal protection now is too risky," said Heidi Godwin, regional representative for the Sierra Club in Montana. "You don't go from emergency room to the parking lot. The bears still need intensive care."

The National Wildlife Federation, though, says it is time for environmentalists to rethink how to manage Yellowstone's grizzlies — both as a matter of science and as a political tactic in an era of Republican rule.

"We think we should embrace success when it happens," said Sterling Miller, a grizzly-bear specialist and senior wildlife biologist in the federation's Northern Rockies office. "If we don't, we play right into the hands of the people who are trying to kill the Endangered Species Act. ... "

The proposal to take the grizzlies off the endangered-species list comes as the White House, Republicans in Congress, land-rights groups and many industry lobbyists are pressing to limit the scope and power of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, which many conservatives scorn as costly, clumsy and ineffective.

Given this political reality, officials from the National Wildlife Federation say they have concluded that the long effort to rescue grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park should be publicized for what it is: a resounding success and a perfect example of how the Endangered Species Act can work.

When grizzlies were listed as threatened in 1975, there were about 200 to 250 of them in the Yellowstone area. Now their population is estimated to be about 600, and growing by about 4 percent to 7 percent a year, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"The public should understand that the Endangered Species Act is not an overnight cure," said Thomas France, director and counsel for the federation's Northern Rockies office. "But you will have success when there is proper funding and real cooperation. What has happened with the grizzlies is a model for how to take an animal off the list."

France said Montana, Wyoming and Idaho — working with federal agencies — are well prepared to guarantee the long-term health of Yellowstone's grizzlies.

If the Yellowstone grizzlies are delisted, a Forest Service protection plan in six national forests that surround the national park would sharply limit road building, camping, and oil and gas exploration, while retiring existing leases for livestock grazing, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for Fish and Wildlife. "They would be fairly intensively taken care of from now on," Servheen said.

Officials from several environmental organizations, however, said they do not trust the White House to follow through.