Calls for Wyoming\u2019s grizzlies to be delisted from federal protection and hunted are further damaging Wyoming\u2019s reputation, already sullied by worldwide outrage over the reported torture and killing of a wolf in Daniel, a seasoned wilderness guide said.<\/p>\n
Also weighing in against delisting, famed wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen said the rights of those who enjoy watching grizzlies, without them being hunted, should also be considered.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman called for grizzlies to be delisted and hunted because they keep\u00a0mauling hunters<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you and I both have read too many articles of individuals who have been injured by grizzly bears in Wyoming and surrounding states,\u201d Hageman said\u00a0during a hearing earlier this month before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, which she\u00a0chairs. <\/p>\n \u201cWell, in an overabundance of grizzly bears in those areas that are not suitable habitat, it actually places our hunters, our fishermen and women and our recreators at risk of great bodily injury and even death, doesn’t it?” she said.<\/p>\n Proposing that grizzlies be culled is\u00a0poor optics for Wyoming, wilderness guide and wildlife photographer Jeffrey Soulliere told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n Hageman made those remarks during a recent congressional subcommittee hearing in an exchange with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik. During his previous tenure as director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Nesvik openly supported delisting grizzlies.<\/p>\n Though he lives in Teton County, Wyoming\u2019s politically blue-leaning stronghold, Soulliere is a staunchly conservative Republican. However, he said he disagrees with the spin that fellow Republican Hageman is putting on the\u00a0grizzly issue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe national face she\u2019s putting on it, it\u2019s just not logical and we don\u2019t need that as a state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s reputation with the wildlife-loving public was already damaged by the controversy swirling around Daniel resident Cody Roberts, he said. <\/p>\n Roberts is accused<\/a> of running a wolf down with his snowmobile and tormenting the animal for hours before finally killing it.<\/p>\n \u201cCody Roberts, on an international scale, did Wyoming no favors whatsoever,\u201d Soulliere said.<\/p>\n Many Favor Delisting<\/p>\n Hageman is hardly the only one calling for grizzlies to be delisted.<\/p>\n Nesvik recently told Cowboy State Daily that might happen within the next two years.<\/p>\n Current Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce has also openly stated that she favors delisting grizzlies.<\/p>\n Grizzly delisting also has strong support among hunters and ranchers in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.<\/p>\n Soulliere said he doesn\u2019t want grizzlies delisted, at least not anytime soon.<\/p>\n Mangelsen told Cowboy State Daily that he also doesn\u2019t want the bears delisted.<\/p>\n As he sees it, people who value grizzlies alive greatly outnumber those that want to see them hunted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need better wildlife management, period. We need to get rid of this old paradigm that we rule the earth and animals don\u2019t have intelligence,\u201d Mangelsen said.<\/p>\n \u2018The Plight Of The Silvertips\u2019<\/p>\n Grizzlies and wolves are huge attractions for visitors, who pour money into Wyoming\u2019s tourism economy, so the state should be mindful of the attitude it projects toward the apex predators, Soulliere said.<\/p>\n After guiding clients in grizzly country for 20 years, Soulliere has developed an affinity for the bears, which he calls \u201csilvertips.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s an old-school name for grizzlies, inspired by the light-colored tips many bears have on their fur, which produces a silver gleam in the sunlight.<\/p>\n \u201cI do it (call grizzlies silvertips) out of respect, and because of the legacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said he tells his wilderness trek clients about \u201cthe plight of the Greater Yellowstone silvertip grizzly.\u201d<\/p>\n Grizzlies are a huge draw for tourists,\u00a0Taylor Phillips,\u00a0owner of Jackson Hole EcoTour Adventures, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n He declined to give his opinion one way or the other regarding delisting.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s no question that Wyoming\u2019s wildlife drives the tourism industry, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur guests come from all over the world to see these bears,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s wildlife can\u2019t be taken for granted, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOh my gosh, I feel so fortunate to live and work and an ecosystem where we still have apex predators on the landscape. All of the large mammals that we had here 200 years ago, we still have here,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n Back From The Brink<\/p>\n People today associate grizzlies with the rugged mountains of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), but they\u2019re naturally a plains species that was \u201cpushed back into the GYE\u201d by westward expansion as the plains were settled, he said.<\/p>\n Thousands of grizzlies once occupied a\u00a0huge swath of territory<\/a>\u00a0west of the Mississippi River, including nearly the entirety of the Great Plains.<\/p>\n There were also thousands of grizzlies in California, which Soulliere\u00a0said carried unique DNA.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an image of a grizzly on that state\u2019s flag, even though they disappeared from California in the early 1900s.<\/p>\n Some claim that grizzlies should be introduced to California, and the state could support a population of about\u00a01,200 bears<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, many wildlife managers and biologists say that\u2019s unrealistic, and it will never happen.<\/p>\n By 1973, the population of grizzlies in the Lower 48 had been reduced to an estimated 136 bears in the GYE.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were\u00a0going to lose the grizzly DNA, just like California did. We were on the verge of that,\u201d Soulliere said.<\/p>\n Grizzlies in the Lower 48 were placed under federal endangered species protection, and have steadily recovered since.<\/p>\n There are now about 1,000 grizzlies in the GYE, and another 1,000 or so in Montana\u2019s Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, radiating out from core habitat in Glacier National Park.<\/p>\n Grizzlies have been steadily reclaiming high plains habitat in Montana, with bears showing up as far east as the Missouri Breaks.<\/p>\n Grizzlies have also been expanding their range in Wyoming, showing up as far south as the Kemmerer area.<\/p>\n