Save A Grizzly. Kill A Few Thousand Humans

The world has gone insane and thousands of Americans are leading the charge! There once was a day in my life when I believed that most Americans had a brain. I have since come to the realization that few do and haven’t even the slightest inkling on how to get off their backsides and learn something for a change instead of listening to the nightly news broadcasts and believing whatever it is they hear. It’s a shame and it’s destroying our country!

With that said – and I thought I might feel better about things but I doesn’t – here we go again. Another person claiming to be knowledgeable about hunting and grizzly bears tells the world how it is. An editorial appeared in yesterday’s Idaho Statesman from a woman who claims to want to save grizzly bears by banning black bear hunting and the methods used for such.

Christine Gertschen is responding to the fact that a Tennessee bear hunter screwed up and didn’t properly identify his target before pulling the trigger. He shot a grizzly bear thinking it was a black bear. While he is ultimately responsible for what he shoots at, in fairness we should point out that no grizzly bears had been seen in that part of Idaho in 61 years. Here is some of her lament.

Without guidance from the outfitter who accepted his money for this privilege, he probably did not know that this was indeed a rare bear.

To be totally forthcoming here, the hunter accused was hunting over bait, a legal practice in Idaho and other states. It is unfortunate that in one’s quest to discredit all hunters and guides and the long-time practice of hunting that has served our society well for many generations, she has to begin by generalizing and misleading readers. She claims the hunter lacked guidance from his outfitter. She does not know that. She assumes that because the guide wasn’t sitting in the hunter’s back pocket that he wasn’t under his guidance. Is it Idaho law that requires a guide to be with a client 100% of the time? She also brings money into the picture which is just another blatant attempt at smearing the guiding industry as though somehow this hunter was paying dirty money to do something that was illegal.

Then she does two things. She attempts to convey to readers that the hunter is stupid and then lies by stating that the grizzly bear is a “rare” bear. She doesn’t know this hunter from Tennessee. How in the world can she honestly claim that he, “probably did not know that this was indeed a rare bear”?

The only thing rare about this event was the fact that a grizzly bear was where one hadn’t been for over 60 years. This doesn’t change the facts of what happened but for this editorial to claim a grizzly bear is a rare bear is a lie. Alaska and much of the Canadian Rockies area have more grizzly bears than we humans know.

Gertschen obviously has issues with bear baiting and that’s her right to express her opposition to it. By not having any science or just plain facts to support any of her claims though, she resorts to emotionalism with a effort to win over her audience by crying a river.

This grizzly bear had managed to avoid humans for several years in the wilderness but drought conditions and impending hibernation drove him to the bait. This is a sad waste of a magnificent creature. If we do not act to protect grizzlies, it will not be long before the few small grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 begin to blink out.

Are we to assume from this rant that if the bear had never come in contact with any human, it would be alive today? If that is the case, then perhaps the writer should pack her bags and get out of Dodge on the first train. She is living in grizzly bear country and if she wants to save another grizzly from sure demise, then moving is the best thing for the poor bears.

All animals are a magnificent creature and there will always be circumstances beyond human control that will result in the death of some of these animals. Our fish and game departments, through billions of dollars generated from the sales of licenses, have provided all Americans the opportunity to appreciate the wild animals.

To perpetuate the lie that if we don’t do something to protect the grizzly in the lower 48 states they’ll all be gone is absolutely ludicrous. The writer chooses to describe them as “the few small grizzly bear populations”. There is absolutely no danger of the grizzly bear disappearing from areas in the lower 48 states. A testament to that is the fact that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just removed the grizzly in parts of the Yellowstone National Park area from the Endangered list.

What is laughable is the writer’s attempt to convince us that bear baiting is causing bears to become habituated to humans and thusly the result of the ultimate death of the bear. If one is to blindly accuse bear hunters of habituating bears to humans then they cannot overlook the fact that residents who refuse to bring in bird feeders, pick up and care for their trash, etc. are the cause of far more bear killings than a handful of hunters. So let’s get rid of a few thousand humans and let the bears rule.

Scientists have learned from many years of study that fragmented populations of rare animals lead to what is called the extinction vortex. Respected conservation biologists recommend a system of core reserves and travel corridors designed to prevent fragmentation. While a roadless corridor can go a long way to allowing bears and other rare wildlife to move between populations, if every bear that leaves a protected area or park falls victim to bear baiting, we can never expect to leave a sustainable population of grizzly bears for the generations to come.

It now becomes clear that Gerschen is a sponsor of wilderness management of wildlife. Perhaps in the circles she travels, her peers believe that total wilderness with no wildlife management is the best way to save bears. Far more scientists don’t buy that philosophy at all. The reason we are saving species today and wildlife populations are overabundant in many places isn’t because of the creation of more wilderness areas.

It’s a joke really when the writer says that every time a grizzly bear leaves a protected area – aren’t all grizzlies protected everywhere in the lower 48? – it will fall victim to a hunter. Has the writer forgotten that grizzly bears are not hunted in the lower U.S.? Is she implying that all hunters and going to shoot and kill every bear that comes to visit a bait pile? One hunter made a mistake. That is unfortunate. Thousands of residents in bear country make mistakes everyday that result in the death of a grizzly. Are we now to assume that all people are out to get bears killed?

As the grizzly expands its habitat, it will continue to create more and more bear/human encounters. Through education programs we will teach out hunters about better tactics for game identification and we will continue to teach residents how to live in bear country. For me, I’ll put my money on having far better success in the education process of hunters than the general public. With that said then, if Ms. Gertschen wants to save a bear, she and a few thousand other humans should move to the city and stop being a hypocrite. Blaming bear hunters for the deaths of grizzly bears is inaccurate and only displays one’s ignorance of the facts.

Accidental death of a grizzly by hunter = 1. Deaths of grizzlies from backyard dumpster diving = 100s. So, who should we be attacking?

Tom Remington