[env-trinity] Grizzlies in the Trinity Alps

[Patrick Truman]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This bears repeating: A grizzly comeback?
Tom Stienstra

Sunday, November 20, 2005

        a.. Printable Version 
        b.. Email This Article 
     
                  Tom Stienstra  
                  Archive 
                  This bears repeating: A grizzly comeback?
                  11/20/2005 

                  THE BEST GETAWAYS
                  11/10/2005 

                  Elkhorn Slough provides an exciting wildlife show
                  11/06/2005 

                 
           

     


Could it happen here in California? The grizzly bear returned to its native home? 

Can you imagine being awakened at night, camping at Point Reyes National Seashore, deep in your sleeping bag, and then hearing the bass-voiced growl and the thump of footprints of a griz? You poke your head out your tent, shine a flashlight and see something that looks like a Volkswagen with hair? 

The idea of reintroducing the grizzly bear in California is a fantasy for some that was last seriously visited 20 years ago, when the Mountain Lion Foundation proposed transplanting grizzlies in the Trinity Alps Wilderness in Northern California. 

That daydream/nightmare is back. This past week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service floated a proposal to reclassify the grizzly in the greater Yellowstone area as threatened rather than endangered. In response, some have privately wondered if the stage could be set for reintroduction of the grizzly in California. A few informal discussions took place this past week at a recreation and tourism symposium at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, attended by the National Park Service, State Department of Parks and many local and regional park districts and water agencies. 

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the population of grizzly bears has nearly tripled at Yellowstone in the past 30 years, from roughly 200 to about 600. This wildlife victory comes in the aftermath of another recent comeback: the bald eagle's status was endangered, now it's threatened. 

In fact, many species of wildlife are at 100-year highs, with some notorious exceptions. This includes blacktail deer populations in California, down from 2 million to 600,000 in the past 50 years, and the fact that of 500 threatened or endangered aquatic species, not one has been delisted; that's right, zero-for-500, a perfect batting average for the feds. 

When it comes to the grizzly in California, the last ursus arctos californicus is on the state flag. They've been extinct for more than 80 years and near-gone since the gold rush days. 

In the diaries of the first explorers 200 years ago, there are accounts of "countless troops of grizzly bears" in the Bay Area. The stories detail how the giant bears would bound across the bluffs of the San Francisco Headlands and gorge on washed-up whales, or roam the foothills and attack vast herds of elk. In the San Gabriel Mountains north of L.A., there were so many grizzlies that explorers were reluctant to set foot there and face an encounter. 

You see, grizzly bears, unlike other wildlife (except the buffalo), do not have a reverse gear. When people arrived to the Bay Area and L.A., it forced showdowns, bears vs. humans, and the bears got wiped out. 

Meanwhile, in remote wilderness areas, such as the Trinity Alps, one site suggested for "reintroduction," the grizzlies never lived there. They avoided the high mountain country, and instead dominated the coastal and valley foothills near rivers where salmon and tule elk provided all-you-can-eat buffets. 

So to reintroduce grizzly bears to their native habitat in California, you'd have to plunk a few at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, along Lagunitas Creek in Marin Country and at Point Reyes, at Sunol near Niles Canyon in the East Bay foothills, among other places, and in Southern California, just north of Pasadena in Angeles National Forest. 

In the ensuing backyard showdowns, a few folks would probably get chomped, of course. Or you'd have to move all the people out to make room for the grizzlies. 

Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea after all. 

E-mail Tom Stienstra at tstienstra at sfchronicle.com. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20051120/248c278e/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: chronicle_logo.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 1013 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20051120/248c278e/attachment.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: redorangebox5x7.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 49 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20051120/248c278e/attachment-0001.gif>