{"id":973687,"date":"2023-01-29T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=420405"},"modified":"2023-01-29T11:00:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T11:00:04","slug":"a-biologist-fought-to-remove-grizzlies-from-the-endangered-species-list-until-montana-republicans-changed-his-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/29\/a-biologist-fought-to-remove-grizzlies-from-the-endangered-species-list-until-montana-republicans-changed-his-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"A Biologist Fought to Remove Grizzlies From the Endangered Species List \u2014 Until Montana Republicans Changed His Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Chris Servheen<\/u> speaks to skeptical audiences across the Northern Rockies, he holds one goal above all others. The famed bear biologist aims to fix his lessons in the mind of the hunter. He wants his words to return in that critical moment when the hunter is alone in the wilderness, with a grizzly in his sights, and no one to witness what comes next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision is made when you\u2019re looking through the scope and there\u2019s a grizzly bear there,\u201d he says. \u201cAre you gonna shoot him or not? You think, \u2018I can get away with it. I don\u2019t like grizzly bears. I can do this.\u2019 Or do you think, \u2018It\u2019s worthwhile to have these animals around \u2014 I shouldn\u2019t do this\u2019? That\u2019s where the bears live or die.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the solitary hunter in the crosshairs of Servheen\u2019s speeches is choosing between letting the grizzlies be or poaching them \u2014 but that could soon change. While grizzlies are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, Republican lawmakers across the Northern Rockies<\/a> are pressing the Biden administration to turn management of the bears over to the states, thus allowing for the opening of legal hunting seasons.<\/p>\n

\n\"CHRIS-SERVHEEN\"\n

Bear biologist Chris Servheen.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Courtesy of Chris Servheen<\/p><\/div>For 35 years, Servheen led the U.S. government\u2019s effort to bring the iconic bears back from the brink of extirpation in the lower 48 states. He has a no-bullshit demeanor befitting a scientist who has spent his life on the front lines of one of the most politically charged battles in the American West. With a wide handlebar mustache, a doctorate in wildlife biology and forestry from the University of Montana, and a deep understanding of the region\u2019s competing constituencies, he\u2019s had the distinction of being both cursed by ranchers and sued by environmentalists.<\/p>\n

By the time he retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2016, Servheen had become a prominent advocate of the view that federal grizzly bear recovery efforts had worked and the time for delisting had come. Now the president and board\u00a0chair of the Montana Wildlife\u00a0Federation, the state\u2019s oldest and largest\u00a0conservation organization, Servheen\u2019s position on the delisting question has turned 180 degrees. The reason is rooted in politics, and what he sees as a wave of fact-free \u201chysteria\u201d sweeping the Rocky Mountain West.<\/p>\n

In the past two years, Servheen watched with horror as a right-wing takeover in state politics \u2014 from Gov. Greg Gianforte\u2019s 2020 election to the establishment of a Republican supermajority in 2022 \u2014 has radically reshaped Montana\u2019s relationship to wildlife policy, particularly in the cases of protected predators that some Westerners see as living symbols of federal overreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a clown car of absurdities here. The people that are coming up with these ideas are totally misinformed about what really is going on.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

The first wave of the assault targeted wolves. During Montana\u2019s last legislative session, in 2021, Gianforte \u2014 with the help of handpicked wildlife commissioners representing trophy hunting, outfitting, and livestock industries \u2014 signed bills to deregulate wolf-hunting techniques. The state also did away with hunting quotas on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, leading to the deadliest winter<\/a> the park\u2019s biologists have ever recorded, with roughly a fifth of Yellowstone\u2019s wolves killed in a matter of months.<\/p>\n

With a new legislative session now underway, Servheen \u2014 who also serves as co-chair\u00a0of the North American Bears Expert Team for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature \u2014 and other veteran wildlife biologists across Montana are profoundly concerned that Republican lawmakers are angling to apply the same regressive approach on grizzly bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a clown car of absurdities here,\u201d he told me. \u201cThe people that are coming up with these ideas are totally misinformed about what really is going on, and it\u2019s all based on their misconceptions and their crazy feelings about \u2018I hate predators.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In Montana,<\/u> the effort to delist grizzlies is led by Gianforte and his fellow Republican, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines. The pair bonded in the 1990s, working at RightNow Technologies, a tech company Gianforte co-founded with financial support<\/a> from Daines\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

RightNow was purchased in 2012 for a reported $1.8 billion. The sale helped transform Gianforte and Daines from very wealthy to ultra-wealthy. A decade later, the two men are Montana\u2019s most prominent Republican lawmakers, attending the same evangelical church in Bozeman, itself a node in the rapid rise of Christian nationalism<\/a> fast transforming the state\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we await final delisting, we must do all that we can to ensure public safety, to stop the risks to human life, and to prevent further livestock depravation that is devastating Montana agriculture,\u201d Daines said<\/a> in a 2020 interview concerning the bears\u2019 status in the state.<\/p>\n

Though grizzlies do occasionally prey on livestock, the Republicans\u2019 claims of widespread and devastating financial impacts overstate the scale of the problem. According to the Montana Department of Livestock, grizzly bears were responsible for killing<\/a> 143 of Montana\u2019s more than 2.7 million sheep and cattle in 2022, contributing to a loss of 0.000052 percent of the state\u2019s livestock. The state paid ranchers $234,378.37 to compensate for those losses.<\/p>\n\n

In his many years dealing with the conflicts that arise from expanding human and grizzly populations, Servheen has learned to separate positions from interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk to many people about bears. Many times what they say is that: \u2018I hate bears. We don\u2019t want the federal government telling us what to do. We don\u2019t like the Endangered Species Act. We don\u2019t want grizzly bears to be in this area or around my property.\u2019 Those are all positions,\u201d he said. \u201cThe position discussions are worthless because you end up hitting a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interests, like not wanting to lose livestock to grizzlies, are a different story. In the half century since grizzlies were added to the endangered species list, Servheen and a wider community of researchers and conservationists have developed an array of conflict management practices to address the inherent challenges of living with grizzlies: from compensation for ranchers, to the installation of electrified fences and food storage containers, to the relocation \u2014 and in some cases, removal \u2014 of problem bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to key in on what those interests are to people, and listening to them as opposed to telling them \u2014 I found that to be the most productive approach,\u201d Servheen said.<\/p>\n

Once interests are addressed, the work of underlining the value that large predators bring to an ecosystem \u2014 the kind of conversations that may prevent a hunter from becoming a poacher in a moment of unsupervised opportunity \u2014 can begin.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

At the time of his retirement, Servheen believed the future of grizzly recovery was on solid ground. Conflict resolution efforts were catching on and succeeding; Montana\u2019s Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, or FWP, still hung on to its reputation for considered wildlife management; and the bear populations in northwest and southwest Montana were growing. Servheen felt that his life\u2019s work was in good hands. That confidence has been shattered in the years since.<\/p>\n

Servheen\u2019s theory of recovery and change turns on a respect for science. It requires a willingness to moderate and move on from long held but out-of-date positions, and it demands that state wildlife professionals operate free from political pressure and influence. In Montana, Servheen argued, those prerequisites have been blown to bits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have seen this coming,\u201d the veteran bear biologist said. \u201cFor years, I was leading the recovery program and advocating that we should recover grizzly bears and delist the bears and turn them over to state management because I had a lot of faith in the state, that the state was making management decisions based on science and facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s no longer the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t support that given the politicians doing what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Servheen said. \u201cAnd this has just happened in the past two years. It\u2019s totally new.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"UNITED\n

Then-Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., left, waves to constituents at the Crow Fair in Crow Agency, Mont., on Aug. 18, 2018.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Tom Williams\/CQ Roll Call<\/p><\/div>\n

Wildlife governance in<\/u> Montana, like most states, is managed by a panel of commissioners. Appointed by the governor, the commission sets regulations for the fish and wildlife agency \u2014 in this case, FWP. Montana law requires that those appointees be selected \u201cwithout regard to political affiliation\u201d and \u201csolely for the wise management of the fish and wildlife of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the apolitical requirements, Gianforte, Montana\u2019s first Republican governor in a decade a half, populated his commission with a former running mate and a collection of high-dollar campaign donors \u2014 none of whom possessed professional wildlife management experience. He also tapped Henry \u201cHank\u201d Worsech, the former executive director of the\u00a0Montana Board of Outfitters<\/a>, the licensing authority for Montana\u2019s powerful political constituency of outfitters and guides, as director of FWP.<\/p>\n

In years past, Democratic governors would veto the more extreme bills introduced by Republican lawmakers eager to liberalize wolf killing in Montana. Gianforte, by contrast, signed those measures into law. Worsech directed FWP to come up with plans for implementing the measures, and the commission gave them the green light. International outrage followed, as well as an ongoing federal review to determine whether wolves should be returned to the endangered species list.<\/p>\n

Along with the many anti-wolf bills passed last session, Republican lawmakers also zeroed in on bears. Part of the push came from Republican state Rep. Paul Fielder, who also serves as the Montana Trappers Association\u2019s liaison to FWP. Fielder hails from Thompson Falls, a tiny community in northwest Montana, a remote region with a reputation for attracting anti-government types that\u2019s recently become awash in MAGA-inspired politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Gianforte\u2019s support, Fielder secured the re-legalization of hound hunting for black bears, a practice that Montana outlawed a century ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wrote this bill for something that was not happening in Montana for generations, and the Legislature, because it was proposed by a Republican, they all voted for it, and the governor signed it,\u201d Servheen said.<\/p>\n

Like the legalization of snares to catch and kill wolves \u2014 which Fielder sponsored and Gianforte signed \u2014 the hunting of black bears with hounds can also impact grizzlies, leading to dangers for the hounds, hunters, and grizzlies alike. (Fielder did not respond to an interview request.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a miniscule number of people that want to do this,\u201d Servheen said. \u201cThey\u2019re a super isolated special interest, and the Legislature is going in and granting these people privileges to do things which are harmful to grizzly bears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a super isolated special interest, and the Legislature is going in and granting these people privileges to do things which are harmful to grizzly bears.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

Another bill signed by Gianforte in 2021 prohibited FWP from relocating problem bears, raising the possibility that first-time-offender bears would be shot on site. A third authorized ranchers to kill bears that they deemed as a threat to their livestock and left it to ranchers to define what constitutes a threat.<\/p>\n

The onslaught prompted Servheen to speak out. In the heat of the 2021 legislative session, he wrote an op-ed for the Mountain Journal, a Bozeman-based conservation news website, connecting the Manifest Destiny-inspired thinking that led to mass predator extermination in the 1800s to Montana\u2019s present moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is allowed to continue,\u201d he warned<\/a>, \u201cwe stand to lose all that we have gained to build and maintain healthy natural ecosystems and repair the historic wrongs done to wildlife and nature by past generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a new legislative session underway, Republican lawmakers are pushing for further deregulation of predator hunting. Building on his 2021 black bear hound-hunting legislation, Fielder is now pursuing a bill that would eliminate the FWP commission\u2019s authority to designate where that hunting occurs, increasing the likelihood of hound hunting in grizzly bear recovery zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is crazy,\u201d Servheen said. \u201cThe commission is supposed to be the managers of wildlife. They\u2019re supposed to be making those decisions. The Legislature should not be getting into the weeds of making detailed decisions about where wildlife are taken and how they\u2019re taken. That is really inappropriate. They\u2019re not experts in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\"Grizzly\n

A grizzly near Swan Lake in Yellowstone National Park on June 6, 2015.<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Neal Herbert\/NPS<\/p><\/div>\n

The big question<\/u> now is whether the Northern Rockies states will win the right to manage their grizzly populations themselves.<\/p>\n

As wildlife species listed under the Endangered Species Act recover, states must submit plans showing that they can manage the animals in such a way to sustain viable populations. Last month, FWP released a draft grizzly management plan<\/a> for public review that sketched out a new framework for managing the bears.<\/p>\n

The final decision on the delisting will fall to Martha Williams, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A veteran of the Montana wildlife management scene<\/a>, Williams was director of FWP before joining the federal government. A lawyer by training and an expert in the Endangered Species Act, Williams was central in Montana\u2019s efforts to attain state management of wolves more than a decade ago. Her appointment to head U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received enthusiastic support<\/a> from Daines and his Democratic counterpart, Jon Tester.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Some wildlife advocates, though, have questioned<\/a> the legality of Williams\u2019s appointment. She lacks a scientific degree, which is required<\/a> under federal law. Others worry that Daines\u2019s support for her appointment could be a sign of her potential openness to delisting grizzlies.<\/p>\n

Servheen pushed back on the notion that U.S. Fish and Wildlife is certain to give Montana Republicans their long-standing dream of legalized grizzly hunts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a foregone conclusion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s true that Montana has petitioned for delisting, Williams and her team have yet to determine whether that petition merits a review. The process for removing an animal from the endangered species list goes beyond raw numbers, Servheen pointed out. He argued the laws on the books and those being considered \u2014 the hound hunting and authorizing private citizens to kill grizzlies any time they feel their property is threatened \u2014 make it impossible for Montana to satisfy requirements to ensure continued grizzly recovery.<\/p>\n

Grizzly bears have one of the slowest reproduction rates of any large mammal on the planet. They don\u2019t bounce back from heavy human-caused mortality the way wolves do.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have dead bears everywhere, and you would be way beyond the sustainable limit,\u201d Servheen said. \u201cFish Wildlife and Parks has no ability to control it, therefore you don\u2019t have an adequate regulatory mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would treat the grizzly bear just like they\u2019re now treating wolves. That\u2019s what would happen.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

While the laws could be tweaked to please U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the federal agency considers the delisting question, Republicans in Montana have already revealed their anti-predator intentions, Servheen argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the bear was delisted, then what\u2019s to stop the Legislature from putting those laws right back in place?\u201d he asked. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to stop them from doing that and given where they are and where they\u2019re coming from and what they\u2019re doing \u2014 it\u2019s a clear indication that\u2019s probably what they would do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would treat the grizzly bear just like they\u2019re now treating wolves,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current moment is as decisive as any in the history of grizzly bear recovery in the United States. A half-century of hard work that for many symbolizes the best of what conservation can be hangs in the balance. Servheen and others are fighting to turn the tide, but he worries it won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see things getting any better,\u201d he said. \u201cI just see them getting worse, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post A Biologist Fought to Remove Grizzlies From the Endangered Species List \u2014 Until Montana Republicans Changed His Mind<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former U.S. wildlife official Chris Serhveen lost faith in delisting when Montana\u2019s GOP revealed its anti-bear \u201chysteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post A Biologist Fought to Remove Grizzlies From the Endangered Species List \u2014 Until Montana Republicans Changed His Mind<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,14,2851],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973687"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974714,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973687\/revisions\/974714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}