Thinking Citizen Blog — Grizzlies (ursus arctos horribilis) — Apex Predators — Time To Bring Them Back?
Thinking Citizen Blog: Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day
Today’s Topic: Grizzlies (ursus arctos horribilis) — Apex Predators — Time to Bring Them Back?
The cover of this month’s print edition of Scientific American features a photograph of a semi-submerged grizzly bear searching for salmon in a river in the Lake Clark region of Alaska. In the North Cascades of Washington state, the beasts haven’t been seen since 1996. Is it time to bring them back?
Some in the Biden administration think Yes! So do some Native American tribal leaders.
Many local residents are less enthusiastic. What are your thoughts and feelings?
Today, some excerpts from the article as well as two maps, a photograph, and some statistics culled from the web.
Parenthetically, did you ever encounter one in the wild? If so, I am eager to hear the tale.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
FROM 50,000 GRIZZLIES BEFORE 1800 TO FEWER THAN 1000 IN 1975 WHEN THEY WERE LISTED AS THREATENED IN THE LOWER 48
1. “For millenia grizzly bears roamed this vast stretch of wilderness north-central Washington. Fur trappers and hunters killed thousands of them during the 19th century, essentially eliminating them from the landscape.”
2. “The last official observation of a grizzly in this ecosystem was in 1996.”
3. “But in the fall of 2023 federal agencies had released a plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to the US portion of the North Cascades Ecosystem — a mountainous region roughly the size of Vermont, located within a couple hours’ drive from coastal cities including Seattle and Bellingham.”
NB: ‘It’s part of a broader recovery effort across the American West that was finally getting traction here after decades of bureaucratic starts and stops.”
BUT IN CANADA AND ALASKA THEY ARE DOING JUST FINE
1. Alaska population: 30,000.
2. Canadian: 29,000
3. Canadian Breakdown: British Columbia, 15,000, Yukon 7,000, Northwest Territories 5,000 Nunavut 3,000 Alberta 1,000
NB: “Populations in Alaska are densest along the coast where food supplies such as salmon are more abundant.” (second link below)
SO WHAT IS THE RISK OF GETTING MAULED BY A GRIZZLY?
1. “Data on conflicts haven’t quite caught up to the bears’ increasing sprawl. In Yellowstone National Park, though, the National Park Service reports just 44 visitors injured by grizzlies since 1979, or one for every 2.7 million visits.”
2. “Grizzlies have killed seven visitors since the park was established in 1872 — two more than have been struck and killed by lightning during that time.”
3. “Generally speaking, US Foreest Service regional ecologist Andrea Lyons says, “you’re more likely to die driving to the trailhead than you are from a grizzly bear encounter.”
NB: “Rates of reported conflicts tend to be highest during grizzlies’ extremely hungry phase, called hyperphagia, that occurs before hibernation.” “As part of the reintroduction plan, agencies would provide more education about bear spray and storage of human food, pet food, and garbage.” Hmm….
Grizzlies Are Coming Back to Washington State, and Some People Can’t Bear It
Republicans urge Biden not to release deadly apex predator near rural community
10 Interesting Facts About Grizzly Bears | Yellowstone Bear World
Grizzly Bears: Apex Predators of North America | Minute Safari
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
A LINK TO THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED BY THEME:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENT BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to climate change or the environment.
Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to climate change that the rest of us may have missed. Your favorite chart or table perhaps…
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.
