Grizzly delisting provides challenge

The federal government has finally lit the fuse to delist the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population. Will there be a bang or a whimper?

It depends on how Montana, Idaho and Wyoming manage the population after delisting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is confident that the population of about 600 bears has reached a sustainable level and that's probably true - for now. Careful, prudent management will be necessary to prevent a population plunge back to the 200-300 bears that were around when they were listed as threatened in 1975.

Wyoming officials are already proposing a grizzly bear hunt, and the current population could likely sustain a conservative hunt, with maybe a few permits issued per year. But the states of Montana and Idaho could also propose hunts, along with varying degrees of protection for the bears and the habitat they use. There should be some coherent consistencies among the three states for grizzly bear management.

After protecting and recovering the population for 30 years, the American people are entitled to a success story, rather than a failure at the hands of state wildlife managers.

The Bush administration railroaded Amtrak President David Gunn out of his job two weeks ago, making it clear what our nation's leaders had in mind for Amtrak all along - they don't want to subsidize the rail passenger service. Federal Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has long maintained that Amtrak isn't worth the $30 billion the federal government has spent on it.

Amtrak's board of directors, many of them hand-picked by the Bush administration, said they want a new leader with more vision and experience. It seemed obvious to the rest of America that they had that crucial vision and experience with Gunn. With 40 years of varied transit experience, he did more than any of his predecessors to get Amtrak back on track during the 2 1/2 years he served as president.

Under his direction, long overdue overhauls on equipment began, service was upgraded and even our own Empire Builder got a much needed renovation. Gunn fought hard to preserve public investment in the transcontinental rail system, and was fired in the wake of speaking out against privatization.

When Gunn rode the Empire Builder through Whitefish earlier this year, he credited Montanans' support of Amtrak for Congress' bipartisan effort to continue funding it. His departure will be a blow to this state's efforts to keep its passenger service. Gunn's efforts will not be in vain, though, if we keep the spirit of what he engineered alive by letting our congressional delegation know that we need Amtrak now more than ever.