High Sierra Topix

Can't hunt in the park.. Not seeing the problem.

This applies to bears in the Yellowstone region, not just the national park. Bears outside the park itself are now subject to management by local state fish and game departments.

Not like it's open season on Grizzlies. There are procedures that take years to set up before anyone can hunt them. Still, the only people who can shoot a grizzly legally is IN the national park (problem bears.)

I disagree that the Federal Fish and WIldlife is the only agencey that can manage the Grizzly. The Wyoming, Montana and Idaho G&F departments have staffs of highly trained wildlife biologists. They have managed hunting for years. The state G&F know how to manage in a multiple-use environment whereas the Federal Fish and Wildlife is more of a single goal management. This is simlar to the different objectives of FS vs NP. When a top predator like the Grizzly gets up in numbers to be only marginally endangered, managed hunting, in my opinion, is a good thing. In an area with high public use of the wilderness, bears need to view humans as thier top predator. You may romanticize about the Grizzly, but we cannot turn back the clock on tha fact that this is not the far remote reaches of Alaska, but the lower 48 with plenty of multiple uses. The best way to help the Grizzly is to manage them so that people actually want them there. That is not going to happen if they become habituated to humans, attack hikers or raise havoc with local livestock.

By the way, I lived in Wyoming for 25 years, hunted, and my ex-husband was a game warden, good friends wildlife biologists, ranchers and hunting guids, so I have first hand experience with this issue and a different perspective than an urban environmentalist. That is not to say that I am not an environmentalist, just of a different shade of gray.