Monitoring the 'Grizzly Wars'

Author details varied attitudes toward bears

By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake

Grizzly bears may be accepted as charismatic creatures on Montana's grand landscapes, but there is fear and resistance toward restoring and recovering bear populations in other parts of the Northwest.

That is one of the interesting themes captured in "Grizzly Wars," a new book by Washington author David Knibb, who recently visited Kalispell.

Published by the Eastern Washington University Press, the book chronicles the "slow motion race" to recover grizzly bear populations in distinct areas of the West over the last 30 years.

It dives deep into the politics, science and court cases behind recovery in the Greater Yellowstone area, the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk regions, and the northern Cascades.

"It provides the basics for understanding the issues that are still coming," said Knibb, who marvels at the general acceptance toward grizzly bears in Montana, having been steeped in the controversies surrounding recovery in the Cascades, considered an "evaluation" area for grizzly bear recovery.

"I've been involved in the Cascades for most of my adult life," Knibb said. "Anything that invites controversy in the Cascades naturally attracts me."

Knibb initially intended to focus on the Cascades, but at his publisher's urging, he expanded his extensive research to cover all the grizzly bear populations in the Northwest.

The Cascades and the Bitterroot mountain range are considered "evaluation" areas for recovery efforts. With only a remnant population of a few grizzly bears, the Cascades will require grizzly bears to be relocated there from other areas to have any chance at actual recovery.

The same goes for the Bitterroot area, which has not had a grizzly bear population since the 1950s.

Proposals to move grizzly bears into both areas have generated remarkable resistance that Knibb explores in the book.

"Antibear sentiment came in many forms," he writes, recalling public hearings that were held in Okanagan, Wash., and Salmon, Idaho. "Fear, by far, was the loudest. It was a fear that seemed to spring from primitive instincts. People were deathly afraid of grizzlies. They had heard horror stories about humans being attacked, dragged off into the brush and half eaten. They liked their mountains because they were safe and thought it was madness to consider bringing back these killers."

He recalls how one U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official was spat upon by an elderly woman and how that same official received multiple death threats at a hearing.

He recalls how Helen Chenoweth, the late Idaho congresswoman, likened reintroducing grizzly bears to the Bitterroots to introducing sharks to a beach.

It is a remarkable contrast to the attitudes toward grizzly bears found in Montana.

In the book, Knibb explores the "link between familiarity and tolerance," citing public opinion polls and anecdotal evidence.

"Familiarity apparently spawns some level of acceptance, maybe even appreciation," Knibb writes.

Knibb also covers the authentic concerns about how a grizzly bear population can lead to restrictions on access to public lands.

He considers how a program for augmenting the threatened Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear population was initially met with resistance largely because of those concerns, but over time has won more acceptance.

Knibb has high praise for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in its efforts to manage and monitor the state's grizzly bear population.

"They are, in my view, the model state agency" for grizzly bear recovery, said Knibb, who details those efforts in the book.

Knibb concludes in the book that often erratic and sparse funding for grizzly bear recovery efforts is a reflection of public resolve to accomplish the task.

"Budgets may be an imperfect measure, but over the years they are a more reliable gauge than pronouncements by policy-makers," he writes.

"Both reveal America's ambivalence about the recovery of grizzly bears. People are divided over whether to save grizzlies at all, and how much to spend doing it."

"Grizzly Wars" can be ordered online at: http://ewupress.ewu.edu

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com