News - March 2024
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE IDENTIFIES ‘PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE’ TO RESTORE GRIZZLY BEARS TO THE NORTH CASCADES. [FRIENDS OF THE NORTH CASCADES GRIZZLY BEAR - MARCH 21, 2024]
Posted on March 27, 2024
"National Park Service Identifies ‘Preferred Alternative’ to Restore Grizzly Bears to the North Cascades... federal agencies announced their preference to bring grizzly bears back to the North Cascades Ecosystem."
Thanks to Conservation Northwest for letting us know about this great news.
Photo Credit: from Friends of the North Cascades Grizzly Bear article.
A MOUNTAIN LION KILLED 1, INJURED 1 IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. HOW COMMON ARE THESE ATTACKS? [SACRAMENTO BEE - MARCH 31, 2024]
Commentary by Tom Skeele, CCC
Posted:March 25, 2024
When “walking where the wild things are,” never say "never" about the possibility of being attacked by a large predator. Sure, the odds of this happening are greater in a place like Yellowstone than Yosemite. But it doesn’t mean we humans can’t get attacked, and even killed, by one of the resident carnivores even when the place feels less “wild.”
Such is the case for a twenty-one-year-old fella who this weekend got killed by a mountain lion in the El Dorado National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California about fifty miles northeast of Sacramento. His brother was also attacked, but is expected to survive. Both were looking for antlers that had recently been shed on these public lands. Meanwhile, the cougar has been tracked down and killed.
Two thoughts came to my mind when I read the news about this highly unfortunate incident.
First, such an event can give cause to lots of human hysteria, even as the facts speak to how very unusual this event is (the last fatal cougar attack in California was 2004). As the Sequoia National Forest, also located in the Sierra Nevada mountains, explains: “Mountain lions are typically solitary and elusive. Studies of collared mountain lions show that they often co-exist around people, unseen and unheard.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has a web page titled “Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks,” which highlights how there have been twenty-two lion attacks in the state since 1986, of which three have been fatal. You can find that web page here: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Con.../Mammals/Mountain-Lion/Attacks
My second thought was about a conversation I had with Rick Ridgeway back in 2000 regarding an article he was working on for National Geographic Adventure, titled “Walking Where the Wild Things Are.” For those unfamiliar with Rick, he is an outdoor adventurer, writer and advocate for sustainability and conservation initiatives who for fifteen years was Patagonia’s VP for Environmental Initiatives.
I had explained to Rick that during my four years in Yosemite (circa ‘84-88), I could walk for hours in those Sierra wildlands without ever thinking about the fact I was in the home range of a large carnivore that could attack, and potentially kill, me. I juxtaposed that to my fifteen years living close to Yellowstone, where the presence of carnivores capable of killing me seldom escaped my mind – especially while hiking in those wildlands. Rick used my experiences as a way to highlight his point that there is a difference between "wilderness" and "wildness." As he wrote in his piece, “In an area of true wildness, all the animals are in place - all the predators and all the prey.”
However, even though the Sierra Nevada mountains (and California more broadly) no longer has grizzly bears, it still has large predators that can cause physical harm, even death, to humans. So, while I believe it’s fair for Rick Ridgeway (or anyone else) to say the wildlands of California are not as truly wild as those of the Northern Rockies, never say “never” about the possibility of being attacked, and potentially killed, by a cougar – even if the place has less of a sense of “wildness” to it.
Photo Credit: from Sacramento Bee article.
WELCOMING RELATIVES HOME: THE RETURN OF THE LYNX [RESILIENCE - MARCH 5, 2024]
WELCOMING RELATIVES HOME: THE RETURN OF THE LYNX [RESILIENCE - MARCH 5, 2024]
Commentary by Tom Skeele, CCC
Posted on March 23, 2024
Here's the gist of the story, gleaned from the article originally published by YES! magazine:
Lynx once existed in abundance in Washington state—including on the Tribes’ ancestral territories—before colonization, habitat destruction, trapping, and climate-change-worsened wildfires all took their toll.... the already small lynx population in Washington could soon be left without adequate habitat. Lynx disappearing from the state has become a real possibility.... Increasing wildfire activity has left conservationists concerned that the existing population of lynx in Washington state may be further threatened, leading to an increased interest in re-establishing a population in the Colville Tribes area.... The return of lynx to the Colville Confederated Tribes’ lands represents an important geographical reciprocity. Some of Whitney’s human relatives, too, are reestablishing themselves in B.C., where they once lived with the lynx, the salmon, the elk, and myriad other relatives. “We’re intermingling,” he says. “They’ve taken care of the habitat up there for us and ensured our return, so we’re helping them return as well.”
Photo Credit: from Resilience article.
GUEST LETTER: FWP Misses the Mark on Grizzly Delisting
WELCOMING RELATIVES HOME: THE RETURN OF THE LYNX [RESILIENCE - MARCH 5, 2024]
Commentary by Tom Skeele, CCC
Posted: March 23, 2024
The subtitle to this article is "Six wildlife experts say Montana isn't ready to remove grizzly bears from the Endangered Species List."
When the former grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, two former members of the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission, a former National Forest supervisor with the U.S. Forest Service, a former regional supervisor with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and a former tribal wildlife program manager with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes collectively speak up about grizzly bear management in Montana, we all should listen.
Photo Credit: from Mountain Journal article