FYI,, someone a while ago was talking about this, I forget who but here it is.
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County commissioners oppose B.C. grizzly relocation plan

The Associated Press
5/1/03 2:36 AM


SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- A British Columbia proposal to move as many as 25 grizzly bears to the North Cascades, near the Washington border, has drawn criticism from public officials in the state's northern counties.

Saying they fear the Canadian bears would wander into Washington, threatening public safety and rural economies, commissioners in Stevens and Okanogan counties have passed resolutions urging British Columbia to abandon the plans.

"We don't need anything more to detract from our communities," Ferry County Commissioner Mike Blankenship said. "We don't want them in our back yard."

Commissioners said the grizzlies would kill livestock and wildlife, such as dwindling mule deer populations, and that they might attack rural residents and outdoor enthusiasts.

Commissioners also fear U.S. officials would close roads and restrict forest use to protect the bears.

"How many logging roads is that going to shut down?" Blankenship asked. "How many more logging sales? We can't afford to lose any more of those."

Pend Oreille and Chelan counties, which already have federally protected grizzly bear populations, have stayed out of the fray.

"We've been trying to put out enough brush fires of our own without getting into that one," Pend Oreille Commissioner Mike Hanson said.

Chelan County Commissioner Ron Walter said officials there have no plans to confront their Canadian neighbors, but are concerned about the safety of tourists in the Stehekin area at the head of Lake Chelan and in the Pasayten Wilderness.

"The incidents of people getting killed or attacked is vanishingly small," said Matt Austin, a large-carnivore specialist for British Columbia's Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. "Not to mention that there is so much you can do to make yourself safer."

The county resolutions assert that U.S. environmental groups are encouraging the British Columbia grizzly relocation plan to circumvent a Washington state ban on importing grizzlies.

Austin dismissed the notion.

"We don't make policy in British Columbia based on whether we can get external funding," said Austin, who heads up the province's North Cascades Grizzly Recovery Team.

The provincial government has taken no final action on the draft proposal, which has been under review since it was submitted in January 2001.

An independent scientific panel's review, released last month, offers little support for relocating grizzlies.

"It is far easier politically and economically to maintain healthy populations of grizzly bears than to attempt to restore depleted or extirpated populations," the report states.

Austin said his recovery team has scaled down an initial proposal to move five grizzlies a year, for five years, into the mountains north of Washington's Pasayten Wilderness and North Cascades National Park.

The group's latest proposal calls for introducing as many as three bears a year for five years.

Blankenship said British Columbia officials have given "form letter" responses to the American protests.

"There was no indication at all that they weren't going to do it," he said. "On the other hand, they haven't said it's a done deal, so there's always some hope."

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