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In recent years, grizzly bears have had it rough. They were taken off the endangered species list in 2007, only to be put back on two years later. At least some of them were—a federal district judge in Montana reinstated protections to the grizzly population of Yellowstone National Park in September, 2009. In the continental U.S., they now number about 1,100, which is less than two percent of the 100,000 that lived in the same region 200 years ago.
They're in trouble: they are losing habitat and sources of food, and as a result of both, are also being killed by humans looking to keep the threatening animals out of their own "territory." Not to mention the hunters and poachers...
(Heard of the increasing number of bear sightings near - or in! - people's homes?)
The problem is, it's not that bears have a penchant for food out of garbage cans in the middle of paved streets that can't be comfortable to walk on. Especially where they're likely to get shot or hit by a car. But they've been increasingly turning to human-dominated areas because one, such areas used to be human-free areas and bears aren't given any maps of development in advance, and two, because their own food supply is diminishing. They prefer, say, fresh-fish out of a stream, but wild fish, particularly salmon, populations are (also largely due to human activity) plummeting.
Or, in more landlocked areas like Yellowstone, they depend on the whitebark pine tree, which is also in jeopardy. And (surprise!) it comes back to climate change. Whitebark pines have been devastated by beetle infestations that have been getting worse as winter temperatures increase.
The irony about grizzlies is that they're an endangered species that people are afraid of, and so perhaps are not motivated to help save. But the more threatened these bears are with habitat and food loss, the more dangerous they become to humans. Not to mention the more fragile the ecosystem becomes as a whole.
There are ways you can help.
1. Support habitat conservation. As with so many other endangered (officially or not) species, the problem is not
3. Join NRDC's petition to Obama to restore endangered species protections to grizzly bears, and sign the Care2 petition to save bears.
4. Join the Wildlife Volunteer Corps.
5. Get your politicians and your whole community involved.
6. Lighten your carbon footprint—it seems like a tenuous link, but the world's environmental problems all come down to a connected ecosystem. The less salmon you eat, for example (try flax for those omega 3's), the more time the salmon population will have to replenish itself. The less you drive, the less emissions you produce, which means less global warming, less pine beetle, more trees for the bears.
If you live in bear country, try going the extra mile for the grizzlies:
1. Defenders of Wildlife recommends: building electric fences to protect sheep and cattle, implementing bear-resistant dumpsters in communities, and retiring plots of land used for grazing that have chronic problems with bears. Such efforts will help to eliminate human-bear conflict, which augments the problem. Learn about other conservation solutions and find ways you can lend a hand.
2. Download a map of Northern Rockies Proactive Grizzly Bear projects, and see how you can get involved.
3. Find out about the Grizzly Compensation Trust, which seeks to reduce bear-related economic losses while encouraging conservation of the species. Educate your community so that individual ranchers and farmers do not see bears as the enemy.
4. Work to keep road densities in your area low, reduce timber harvesting, and prevent oil and gas exploration in key areas. This will preserve not only remaining habitat areas, but also bears' ability to move from one area to another. A major freeway can prevent them from moving north, for example, and it's like they end up living on virtual islands, which is unsustainable for them and exacerbates the problem.
