3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2018
Grizzly plan worries Washington state ranchers
Plan to bring
grizzly bears to
North Cascades
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WINTHROP, Wash. — A
few miles north of Winthrop,
Don and Chris Lundgren make
their living raising purebred
Charolais cattle and hosting
overnight guests for trail rides
on horses or snowmobiles —
depending on the season — at
their Chewack River Ranch.
It’s a good life, a hard-work-
ing life, in the rugged beauty of
Washington’s North Cascade
Range.
But a plan by the National
Park Service and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to reintroduce
grizzly bears into the region has
the Lundgrens and other ranch-
ers, orchardists, backcountry
outfitters and residents experi-
encing emotions ranging from
concern to anger. They worry
the huge predators will only
make carving a livelihood out
of the region that much more
difficult.
The plan could be decided
by year’s end. It got a big boost
with the surprise endorsement
in March of Interior Secretary
Ryan Zinke, who oversees both
federal agencies.
Ranchers say they were
shocked, baffled and angered
by Zinke’s position and felt
betrayed by the Trump admin-
istration, which they believed
was on their side on the griz-
zly issue. Now many feel aban-
doned politically, that their
voices don’t matter and are
apprehensive about their future.
Some say putting people’s lives
and livelihoods at risk is just
plain stupid.
“I don’t understand why
people want to turn grizzlies
loose where they will inter-
act with thousands of recre-
ationists, let alone our ranch.
There’s not enough wildlife for
them to eat. Deer are scarce.
There are no elk and very few
moose,” said Don Lundgren,
65, who has lived on the ranch
all his life.
Grizzlies would have
remained plentiful in the North
Cascades if they had food, he
said. Reintroducing them into a
region where they will be short
of food will only cause them
to leave the high country for
ranches, orchards and towns
where they can get food, he and
other residents reason.
He’s concerned for the
safety of his cattle, his family
and his ranch guests and that
his business will suffer.
Part of his 44,000-acre graz-
ing allotment is only a couple of
miles from one of the proposed
grizzly release spots, about 10
miles northwest of the village
of Mazama. Grizzlies have a
normal range of 60 miles.
The restoration of wolves
in the state has not been “fair
for wolves or people,” he said,
adding that cougars are cur-
rently the main problem for
his 200 mother cows and their
calves.
“There are thousands of
people who hike up there in
the Pasayten Wilderness (part
of the North Cascades) and
what will they do? There will
be some dead people. It doesn’t
make any sense,” Lundgren
said.
Grizzly worries
Steve Darwood, co-owner
of Cascade Wilderness Outfit-
ters and North Cascade Out-
fitters in Carlton, agreed the
North Cascades is not good
grizzly bear habitat.
“People deserve a choice.
If they want to see grizzlies
they can go to Yellowstone
(National Park). I have custom-
ers who come here from Mon-
tana because they can enjoy the
high country without the worry
of grizzlies,” Darwood said.
“This will keep people out of
the high country.”
Darwood, 63, has been an
outfitter for 50 years. Each year
he takes about 200 custom-
ers, most of them 55 and older,
on horseback into the Pasay-
ten Wilderness on deluxe trips
where horses, gear, food and
Photos by Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Don Lundgren at his Chewack River Ranch near Winthrop,
Washington. He says he has problems with cougars and
wolves and doesn’t need grizzlies.
Steve Darwood, owner of
Cascade Wilderness and
North Cascades Outfitters
in Carlton, Washington.
Grizzly restoration plan:
Proposed staging and
release areas
Grizzly bear
Binomial name: Ursus arctos horribilis
Area in
detail
WASH.
Chilliwack
3
3
1
Abbotsford
Height: 3 1 / 2 feet at the shoulder, 7-8 feet tall standing upright
British Columbia
Washington
542
Bellingham
Weight: 300-800 pounds depending on age, sex and season
NORTH
CASCADES
NAT’L PARK
5
Average life span: 20 -25 years
Diet: Omnivores, about 80 to 90 percent of their diet consists of
green vegetation, wild fruits and berries, nuts, and bulbs or roots of
certain plants. A portion of their diet may include insects, fish and
small mammals. Grizzlies will sometimes take larger game such as
elk or moose calves and have been known to take livestock.
Behaviors: A grizzly must eat enough to build up huge stores of
fat to sustain it through hibernation. They typically den in Novem-
ber and emerge in April.
Known for: Their impressive size and strength. Grizzlies can
sprint 50 yards in 3 seconds, faster than a race horse.
Range: Today the grizzly bear is found in about 2 percent of its
historic range in the lower 48 states; in pockets of Wyoming,
Montana, Idaho and Washington. Large populations remain in
Alaska and Western Canada.
Source:
U.S. Fish
and Wildlife
Service
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Winthrop
NORTH
CASCADES
NAT’L PARK
530
Appearance: Unlike black bears, grizzlies have a concave face,
rounded ears, high-humped shoulders and long, curved claws.
Their fur ranges in color from light brown to nearly black.
cooking are provided.
“Most of the people who
support grizzly restoration are
people who will never enter
the wilderness,” he said. “It’s
just like the wolf program. The
west side of the state is in favor
of it until a bill passes to intro-
duce wolves on the west side.
Then they’re not so in favor.”
Vic Stokes, 64, a Twisp
rancher and past president of
Washington Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation, is still recovering from
the loss of 100 mother cows,
100 calves and 30 replacement
heifers in the Carlton wildfire
of 2014. This season is his first
back on grazing allotments that
have recovered from the fire.
“I think it’s somewhat mis-
guided,” he said of grizzly rein-
troduction. “Nobody has con-
vinced me it’s necessary.”
His grazing allotments are
18 to 20 miles from proposed
grizzly release points.
“People say you’ll learn to
live with them. I don’t want to
live with grizzlies. I’ve done
just fine without them,” he said.
“I’ve talked with ranchers over
by Yellowstone and they’re a
pretty aggressive animal.”
Stokes said he would hope
President Donald Trump, if
educated about the issue, would
turn Zinke around.
Ranches near other towns
with grazing allotments in the
high country could also be
impacted.
Several ranchers in those
areas didn’t want to be quoted
by name, saying they fear ret-
ribution from federal agen-
cies. They said no one listens to
them, that they’re dealing with
wolves harassing and attacking
their cattle and don’t want griz-
zlies, too.
“It’s too bad Zinke threw
all of us under the bus to kow-
tow to environmentalists. That
just blew me away. I thought
he was a good guy. He’s still a
politician. Follow the money,”
said one rancher. “It never
ends between the fish to take
our water and wolves to eat
Mazama
20
our cows and now grizzlies. It
never stops.”
He called one conserva-
tion group “homeland terror-
ists” who are “trying to kill
agriculture.”
Other views
Mazama store owner Missy
LeDuc, 54, said National Park
Service personnel say grizzlies
will stay to themselves in remote
areas and not be a problem.
“I feel it’s OK, but I’m not
an expert,” LeDuc said. “I’m
an avid back country hiker and
I would be concerned about
running into a grizzly for sure.”
Grizzlies have not been a
big topic among Mazama’s few
residents, she said, adding that
her sense is residents are not
looking forward to it.
She said she doubts it would
affect her business since most
tourists drive through and at
most take short day hikes.
However, Patrick Murphy,
23, who works at Goat’s Beard
Mountain Supply in Mazama,
said reintroduction is a great idea
because grizzlies are native and
“a vital part” of the ecosystem.
“A lot of the outdoor com-
munity is OK with it and
understands having predators
in the ecosystem,” he said.
“Ranchers oppose, which is
understandable.”
He hikes in Alaska where
“there’s a constant threat of
grizzlies,” finds it “exciting”
and “enjoys the thrill.”
The shop sells hiking,
climbing and cross-country ski
gear, and business could be hurt
by grizzlies, he acknowledged.
Alaska has 30,000 grizzlies,
the most in North America,
according to the state Depart-
ment of Fish and Game. Brit-
ish Columbia has about 15,000
grizzlies, according to the
province’s Ministry of Forests,
20
Darington
153
97
Lake
Chelan
North Cascades Ecosystem
Everett release area
Potential
Potential
staging area
2
Chelan
2
Seattle
2
90
5
Wenatchee
N
Tacoma
97
28
90
20 miles
Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; National Park Service
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Lands and Natural Resource
Operations.
The lower 48 states are
home to 1,400 to 1,700 griz-
zlies, with an estimated 800 in
Montana, 600 in the Yellow-
stone and Teton area of Wyo-
ming, 70 to 100 in northern and
eastern Idaho and “fewer than
20” in Washington’s North
Cascades, according to the Fish
and Wildlife Service.
The 2017 Grizzly Bear Res-
toration Plan Draft Environ-
mental Impact Statement for
the North Cascades by the Park
Service and Fish and Wildlife
Service states there has been
“no confirmed evidence” of
grizzlies in the North Cascades
since 1996 and the population
status is unknown. Four detec-
tions of grizzlies in the past
10 years were on the British
Columbia portion of the North
Cascades, the draft states.
Grizzlies have been listed
as threatened under the Endan-
gered Species Act since 1975.
zlies into populated areas.
“In Montana, grizzlies can
come right down the White
River to the valley floor and
still be in the Bob Marshall Wil-
derness. Here they will come
down to the valley floors and
find ranches, orchards, people
and towns,” said Jim DeTro,
70, an Okanogan County
commissioner.
An example, he said, was a
black bear captured in April by
the Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife in the town
of Okanogan, the county seat.
The bear was relocated to the
Colville Indian Reservation,
from where it had come.
Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife Sgt.
Dan Christensen, 49, said the
department traps six to 12
black bears a year, mostly in
spring and fall.
“In the spring (when they
come out of hibernation)
they’re starved of calories and
go wherever they can for first
food,” he said. “They’re look-
ing for the quick and easy. Our
garbage is a good source and
their noses are phenomenal.”
Most everyone he knows,
DeTro said, doesn’t want
grizzlies.
DeTro and former com-
missioner Craig Vejraska, an
Omak rancher, say a University
of Montana professor and bear
expert who visited the area in
2004 thought it ideal for griz-
zlies — but that tree fruit would
attract them “like honey.”
“Grizzlies come out earlier
in the spring than typical black
bear. They’ll be in the snow and
that will force them down val-
leys,” Vejraska said. “I don’t
think it’s a wise move at all.
We already have a bit of a bear
problem with … black bears. If
we turn too small a calf out (to
summer range), they just don’t
come back. Bear, cougar or
wolves get them.”
Christensen said orchards
attract bears, especially in
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More comment
U.S. Rep. Dan New-
house, R-Wash., whose district
includes Okanogan County,
strongly opposes reintroduc-
tion plans. In an April letter to
Zinke, he asked that a public
comment period be reopened
so “local residents who were
ignored can be heard.”
Residents were not allowed
to express their concerns at a
March 2015 public forum in
Okanogan and were poorly
treated by federal employees,
Newhouse said.
Grizzlies will negatively
impact ranchers, recreationists
and rural economies and their
reintroduction violates state
law, Newhouse wrote. The law
directs the state Fish and Wild-
life Commission to protect
grizzlies and encourage natural
regeneration but prohibits their
transplanting or introduction
into the state. Federal agencies
say federal law supersedes state
law.
A Newhouse spokesman
said the congressman is “coor-
dinating with the (Interior)
Department on his request.”
Consult a
Plans, release points
The Park Service and Fish
and Wildlife Service have been
studying North Cascades resto-
ration for 30 years or more.
Eric Rickerson, 51, the
Fish and Wildlife Service state
supervisor in Lacey, says the
agency has a responsibility to
restore endangered species and
wants to do it with minimal
impact on people.
“The last thing we want to
do is put a handful of bears
into an area that quickly leads
them to a valley bottom with
humans. We have to be cau-
tious about that,” he said.
The draft presents a no-ac-
tion alternative and three
action alternatives whose
goal is restoring a population
of 200 bears over 25 to 100
years. Bears would be brought
in from Montana and British
Columbia.
The draft proposes five griz-
zly release spots, at the north
end of Ross Lake near the
Canadian border, three within
20 miles of Mazama and one
15 miles east of Darrington.
Darrington residents say the
Green Mountain Trail is one of
few day hikes in the area but
would no longer be safe with
grizzlies.
Rickerson said he thinks
release zones will be revisited,
with a focus on finding more
remote areas. Grizzlies eat a lot
of plants and recent research
shows there is sufficient habitat
in the North Cascades for 200
to 300 grizzlies, he said. People
are more the cause of the griz-
zly decline than loss of habitat,
he said.
Opponents maintain habi-
tat is scarce and will force griz-
recent years as growers leave
more fruit on the ground.
“It’s a huge food source and
sometimes you see a drunk
bear from the apples that have
fermented on the ground.
We had five bears in a tree in
an orchard along the river in
Omak. The orchardist was con-
cerned because pickers needed
to pick pears,” he said.
But Harold Schell, vari-
ety research and develop-
ment manager for Chelan Fruit
Cooperative, said overall bears
are not a big problem. “They
come down in the fall when the
fruit’s ripe. They may damage
a few trees, but it’s pretty insig-
nificant,” he said.
Keith Stennes, a Methow
grower, said periodically a bear
dines in his pear orchard but it’s
never been a problem.
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