I have a good friend who has a ranch just across the Beartooth Mountains from Yellowstone National Park. His information is anecdotal, and he also has a stake in the debate, but he says that bears from Yellowstone are getting crowded enough to move out into the surrounding areas, and there are many stories of them killing cattle and sheep on surrounding ranches.
I don’t know all the metrics, but I do know that bears need a large habitat. If they have reached the point in Yellowstone that it can’t sustain the increasing population, there may be some basis for removing them from the list. Of course, since this administration bases all of its decision on politics and ignores science, I hope that there are career scientists in the system who would speak out if this decision is seriously wrong.
How can bears be endangered in America, don’t you guys have a right to arm them so they can defend themselves?
One-liners aside, I really don’t know what to think about this. I’m encouraged that their population has rebounded. What does it mean for them, practically speaking, that they are off the list. I assume it’s not going to suddenly be bear hunting time in Yellowstone park (it’s not, is it?!?).
As noted by @Boundegar the EPA wasn’t restaffed top to bottom by Trump. Then again, isn’t it being run by someone who wants to disband it? I guess this is a huge problem with the post-truth era. I can’t have any confidence in anyone’s decision making so I need to know everything myself, apparently.
We went from 136 in 1975 to about 700 today. That’s about 13 bears a year on average. How long do you suspect it will take to get back to endangered if we stop protecting them?
