It’s Too Soon to Remove the Grizzly From the Endangered Species List
February 21, 2023
by Lance Olsen
Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
As the number of grizzly bears has grown, so has interest in removing them from protection of the Endangered Species Act. It’d be premature.
There’s some disagreement on my stance, but I see the grizzly’s attempted recovery at plausible risk of being slowed, halted and reversed by loss of plant foods caused by a combination of drought, and the ongoing crash of insect pollinators — it’s become increasingly evident that a wide range of pollinating insects are in trouble — and CO2-driven loss of plant life’s nutritional support.
Alongside that combined risk to the grizzly’s tentative recovery, add the combination of increasing recreation demand and residential sprawl has its own potentials for slowing, halting and reversing a potentially fragile recovery.
