Don’t Take Grizzlies Off the Endangered Species List

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/opinion/dont-take-grizzlies-off-the-endangered-species-list.html

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To the Editor:

Steven Rinella stated in “A Grizzly Problem” (Op-Ed, May 9) that his true aim in seeing the Yellowstone grizzlies delisted is not to shoot them, but to prove the integrity of the Endangered Species Act.

Defenders of Wildlife fully supports protecting America’s wildlife in its native habitats. This includes “charismatic, Instagram-worthy megafauna” like the grizzly all the way down to the not-so-Instagram-worthy freshwater mussel. We also support delisting species when it is done with integrity and when clear, enforceable plans are in place for conservation of the species into the future.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is jumping the gun with the proposed delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly. The surrounding states and national forests do not yet have complete plans for how the grizzly will be managed. Grizzly bears need room to roam outside of Yellowstone National Park.

Bears should be delisted only if they will be protected from human-caused mortalities and their habitat will be protected, expanded and connected. We can’t afford to be careless with this species.

JAMIE RAPPAPORT CLARK

Washington

The writer is president and chief executive of Defenders of Wildlife and former director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (1997-2001).

To the Editor:

The Endangered Species Act is our nation’s most powerful wildlife conservation law, a linchpin of modern species conservation. Each determination to list, or delist, a species must be driven as the law dictates: using the best available science.

Science is on the side of the grizzly bear. Earlier this month, Dr. Jane Goodall and 57 other prominent scientists submitted a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service denouncing the proposal to delist grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the trophy hunts that will ensue.

Scientists remain concerned that these animals are isolated from other subpopulations, and that they are struggling from the combined effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, decline of primary food sources and human-caused mortality.

The argument that blocking the delisting will cause economic harm ignores the economic benefit that grizzly bears bring to Yellowstone, which garnered $493.6 million in revenue from visitor spending just last year. This still-recovering species is worth far more alive than dead.

BRIAN SHAPIRO

High Falls, N.Y.

The writer is New York state director for the Humane Society of the United States.