Feds tout griz health

Federal officials will appeal a court decision that returned grizzly bears to the Endangered Species List, calling the ruling “unbelievable” given the population’s three-fold increase since 1975. They announced their decision this week, saying they will challenge the decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, of Missoula, Mont., who ruled last year in favor of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. That conservation group said the alarming loss of whitebark pine, a grizzly food, plus unreliable state and federal management plans could not ensure that the species will sustain itself in the ecosystem. “The ruling was ... ‘unbelievable’ is probably the best word,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen said in a telephone interview from his office in Montana. “We disagree with every point [Judge Molloy] has.” Servheen acknowledged the decline in whitebark pine trees but said “whitebark pine has been declining for some time. During that time the grizzly bear population has increased and continues to increase every year.” “The grizzly bear is not a whitebark-pine-dependent species,” he said...more