Group petitions for grizzly bear reintroduction in Selway-Bitterroot

The Center for Biological Diversity wants to restart efforts to transplant grizzly bears into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness along the Montana-Idaho border. The national environmental group formally petitioned Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel Ashe on Thursday to craft a new rule reintroducing the bears. The 16 million-acre area is one of six overseen by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee and the only one with no resident grizzlies. FWS grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen said the area was already approved for an experimental population of grizzlies with an initial reintroduction of 25 bears. That plan was developed in 1996, but shelved in 2001. “The funding has never been available to do it,” Servheen said. “It doesn’t expire or need renewal, and it’s never been withdrawn. But you can’t just drop money on something and it happens.” Santarsiere said the state and federal wildlife agencies shouldn’t be working on delisting grizzly bears from the Endangered Species Act before they re-establish a grizzly population in the Selway-Bitterroot...more