Oxford’s Journal of Heredity<\/a>\u00a0in 2025, which claims a \u201cgenetic similarity\u201d between California\u2019s lost grizzlies and bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.<\/p>\n“The overall genetic similarity between the California and Yellowstone populations, and the strong pattern of isolation-by-distance we observe, all suggest that no closer living relatives are likely to be found,\u201d according to the study.<\/p>\n
“If genetic background is to be a consideration for reintroduction efforts in California, brown bears from Yellowstone might serve as a source population,” the study states.<\/p>\n
A reintroduction plan would have to be completed and approved before any grizzlies could be transplanted to California. The bill calls for that roadmap to be submitted by June 30, 2028.<\/p>\n
Who Would Make The Call On Wyoming Grizzlies?<\/p>\n
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department redirected questions about the possible use of Yellowstone bears to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which did not respond by publication time.<\/p>\n
If and when California grizzly reintroduction\u00a0gets\u00a0underway, Wyoming and the other Yellowstone states might not agree to send grizzlies there, as indicated\u00a0by a\u00a0past request for Wyoming wolves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Colorado geared up for its first round of wolf reintroductions in December 2023, Gov. Mark Gordon flatly refused to send\u00a0wolves\u00a0there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Montana and Idaho also said no, but Oregon finally agreed to provide the first batch of 10 wolves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Things could also hinge on the status of grizzlies, which are still under federal Endangered Species protection, putting them under the primary\u00a0jurisdiction\u00a0of the FWS, and not state agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are ongoing\u00a0efforts\u00a0to delist grizzlies and put them under state control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, if grizzlies are still primarily under federal jurisdiction if and when\u00a0California comes calling for Yellowstone grizzlies, that decision would probably be up the feds, and not the states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In that case, a Wyoming governor could not refuse, as Gordon did with wolves, which are under state jurisdiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Idea\u00a0\u2018Comes Up Every Few Years’<\/p>\n
In a text message Thursday, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Spokesman Peter Tira stated that his agency can\u2019t comment on matters involving pending legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the idea of grizzly reintroduction comes up every few years and we\u2019ve addressed it a number of times in the past,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
California has an image of a grizzly on its state flag. And the state once had thousands of grizzlies, which many now regard as having been a unique subspecies of coastal brown bear.<\/p>\n
The last documented sighting of a grizzly bear in California was in 1924 in Sequoia National Park.<\/p>\n
The Canada Connection<\/p>\n
California grizzly reintroduction could be modeled after efforts to restore grizzlies in southwest British Columbia, Canada, Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of the Grizzly Bear Foundation, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
Scapillati, a British Columbia resident, has been involved in grizzly recovery efforts both there and in California.<\/p>\n
The key could be working with Native American tribes, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe run a First Nations roundtable\u201d that considers grizzly recovery from an Indigenous perspective, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe folks in California took notice of that, and they\u2019re figuring out a way to work with tribes on grizzly reintroduction there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Scapillati has helped facilitate meetings between representatives of tribes in California and British Columbia. The tribes in California helped sponsor the bill, he said.<\/p>\n
In British Columbia, \u201clike in the Yellowstone area, the grizzlies are expanding their range,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
California tribes and state officials could take lessons from that, particularly when it comes to mitigating human-bear conflicts.<\/p>\n
“It (SB 1305) is not promising that the bear is going to come back. But there\u2019s lots of work to still do, especially around co-existence,\u201d between humans and grizzlies, he said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been some success with relocating orphaned cubs of the year to the grizzly recovery zone in British Columbia, he said.<\/p>\n
That involves keeping young cubs who have lost their mothers in captivity until they\u2019re old enough to strike out on their own, around age 2 or so.<\/p>\n
A similar approach might be used to bring grizzlies back to California, he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not Feasible\u2019<\/p>\n
Retired federal ecologist and grizzly advocate Chuck Neal of Cody said he loves the idea of grizzlies returning to California but doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s realistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s feasible,\u201d\u00a0he said. “There\u2019s 40 million people in California.”<\/p>\n
“We have enough trouble keeping bears and people separated here in the Northern Rockies, with a lot fewer people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The focus should be instead what he thinks is the key to full recovery of grizzlies in the Rockies \u2014 connectivity between the Greater Yellowstone population, and the Montana\u2019s Northern Continental Divide grizzlies, centered in Glacier National Park.<\/p>\n
The key to that is repopulating the remote wild areas in central Idaho with grizzlies, Neal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want a viable population here in the Northern Rockies,\u201d\u00a0he said. “Then we can talk about these other areas.”<\/p>\n
\u2018We Lost That DNA\u2019<\/p>\n
Wildlife tour guide and photographer Jeffrey Soulliere of Jackson said he can recall talk of reintroducing grizzlies to California going back decades.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a staunch advocate for grizzlies and said the extinction of the California coastal bears was terrible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a disaster. We lost that DNA. Those were extremely unique bears,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Though he likes the idea of grizzlies returning to California, he doesn’t have much hope that it will happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI figured grizzlies were just going to go down into Washington state from Canada, whether they wanted them there or not, but California was a different ballgame,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
SB 1305 might offer a glimmer of hope for California grizzlies in the future, Soulliere said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that would excite me to no end,\u201d\u00a0he said. “It\u2019s going to take responsibility to do it right.”<\/p>\n
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bringing grizzlies back to California has long been considered a lofty \u2014 but unrealistic \u2014 idea. Now that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-521858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}