Reintroduce Grizzlies!

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Especially in Colorado. I miss them having moved from Montana many years ago. Waiting for my T-shirt to come in.

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A outfitter killed a Colorado Grizzly in SW Colrado around 1985. The grizzly was killed with using a arrow no bow just a arrow. Around the same time their were a couple of other conflicts and possible kills.

You cannot reintroduce what has been there all along, only create a problem where one has not existed because of such low numbers.

Lon

 

[Hunt anything]

On a serious note if they are already protected except for regulated hunting are the numbers increasing naturally?

Will they expand their territory?

Is there any breeding programs that reintroduce them to the wild?

The USFWS declared them “recovered” a few years ago to allow management by the states but law suits have stymied any implementation of hunting seasons. Same with wolves in some areas even though seasons have been I carried out in a few western states.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Bit of trivia: The last publicly known California species of grizzly (Ursus arctos californicus or Ursus horribilis - ""terrifying bear") MAY have been shot in Modjeska Canyon in Orange County, Californicate while raiding a beehive in 1940. The Orange County Register newspaper printed an article about it at the time and I have a photo or copy of the article somewhere. That account contradicts what Wikipedia states as the last California grizzly was shot "while being hunted" in 1924 in Northern Californicate. Anyway, I guess many of that species could grow very large, especially when killing and feeding on the Mexican's ever expanding cattle herds back in the day. It's estimated some 10K California grizzlies existed at one time throughout the state before the European settlers arrived. Evidently, poisoning them is what ultimately led to their extinction there as apparently nothing else worked as well in reducing their numbers.

 

[Scott CWO]

A outfitter killed a Colorado Grizzly in SW Colrado around 1985. The grizzly was killed with using a arrow no bow just a arrow. Around the same time their were a couple of other conflicts and possible kills.

You cannot reintroduce what has been there all along, only create a problem where one has not existed because of such low numbers.

Lon

Yes, I know Ed Wiseman. He killed the last known grizzly in Colorado in September 1979 in self-defense. It was a 400 pound sow.

 

[Neophyte]

Grizzlies belong in Alaska not the lower 48 in cattle country. Same for the vermin we call wolves.

 

[Elkeater]

I’m all for reintroduction of native species including grizzlies. I also think those decisions belong with land management and state game agencies and not on a ballot. Same goes for all wildlife management stuff. Like the wolf reintroduction in CO. What a waste of CPW dollars. They were already there naturally. All we had to do was not shoot them. Instead CPW is spending millions to reintroduce something that is already in the state.

And if we are reintroducing stuff I’d vote Bison over anything else at this point. They numbered in the millions and I’d like to see them ranging through Forest service and BLM lands where they used to be.

 

[Brent in Az]

Back in the 1990’s I had the privilege of participating in a Bighorn relocation project where we released 27 Sierra Nevada Bighorns back into Yosemite National Park, where Bighorns had disappeared from more than 100 years earlier.

It was a big project where we had to purchase the grazing rights on winter range adjacent to the park and get all the domestic sheep removed so that pneumonia wouldn’t be transmitted to the Bighorns and wipe them out. We got all that done and did the capture the following March on winter grounds east of Kings Canyon National Park. We caught a total of 34 Bighorns and it was a big deal because of the historical significance for Yosemite. All 3 major networks and CNN had coverage of our project on the evening news.

We released 7 collared sheep south of the park, where we hoped they’d integrate with a small population Fish & Game didn’t know much about and the collars would allow them to study that small population of sheep. We released the other 27 sheep up Lee Vining Canyon at the eastern boundary of Yosemite. It was great watching those ewes, lambs and rams run from the trailers into freedom where there had been no sheep for so long.

I got a call from the biologist in charge of the project about 3-4 weeks after we’d released the sheep. He informed me that houndsmen associated with Animal Damage Control had been dispatched to remove mountain lions from the area as 8 or 9 of the sheep we’d released had already been killed by lions. In the end, we lost most of those sheep to depredations, mostly by lions.

We have the same issues with the Pusch Ridge herd in the Catalina mountains on the north edge of Tucson.
G&F release the Desert Bighorn......the Mountain Lions eat them.

 

[Elkeater]

We have the same issues with the Pusch Ridge herd in the Catalina mountains on the north edge of Tucson.
G&F release the Desert Bighorn......the Mountain Lions eat them.

Least here in AZ we get to shoot lions.

 

[Brent in Az]

Least here in AZ we get to shoot lions.

True

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Yes, I know Ed Wiseman. He killed the last known grizzly in Colorado in September 1979 in self-defense. It was a 400 pound sow.

OK, I missed it by a few years. There may have been one or two others killed about the same time under questionable circumstances. DOW was in a bit of a quandary, they wanted someone prosecuted, but they did not want anyone to know they were there. Same story on wolves. SOS cures many illnesses. Or so I hear.

Lon

 

[Boone66]

OK, I missed it by a few years. There may have been one or two others killed about the same time under questionable circumstances. DOW was in a bit of a quandary, they wanted someone prosecuted, but they did not want anyone to know they were there. Same story on wolves. SOS cures many illnesses. Or so I hear.

Lon

Don't ya mean SSS? Shoot, shovel and Shutup.

 

[colorado]

When I lived in Western Montana, if you shot a grizzly you better have a good lawyer! Until 1973 or so it was legal to hunt them and we did in the Bob Marshall. As I recall only 25 licenses a year were granted, and almost all of the hunts were guided.

 

[lockingblock]

Apex predators were killed off for good reasons…they eat us and they eat the things we eat.

Bringing wolves back was a giant mistake. Bears are just as bad. The Bob is a shining example.

 

[JimP]

Apex predators were killed off for good reasons…they eat us and they eat the things we eat.

Bringing wolves back was a giant mistake. Bears are just as bad. The Bob is a shining example.

If you watch those who support bringing them back you will see that they are ones that will never have to deal with them. Such was Colorado when they passed the initiative to bring in the wolves. While there were some areas such as Aspen and Vail the majority of the population of the state didn't want them. But the front range area Boulder and Denver areas carried the vote.

Same with a couple of years ago when British Colombia banned the hunting of grizzles, it was the metropolitan area that carried the vote.

In the long run they want to screw over the rural areas, that is why you see areas like Eastern Oregon, Washington, Northern California, and a area in Colorado wanting to succeed from their respective states

 

[Neophyte]

If you watch those who support bringing them back you will see that they are ones that will never have to deal with them. Such was Colorado when they passed the initiative to bring in the wolves. While there were some areas such as Aspen and Vail the majority of the population of the state didn't want them. But the front range area Boulder and Denver areas carried the vote.

Same with a couple of years ago when British Colombia banned the hunting of grizzles, it was the metropolitan area that carried the vote.

In the long run they want to screw over the rural areas, that is why you see areas like Eastern Oregon, Washington, Northern California, and a area in Colorado wanting to succeed from their respective states

I actually think it would be good for certain states to secede from this so called United States.

If Texas ever secedes again I’m moving to Texas. I sure a heck haven’t been represented by my so called representatives. On a similar note I think all the federal land in the west should belong to the state it’s located in not the federal government.

 

[Brent in Az]

Fred Fritz and the Grizzly.

I rode down to the XXX ranch on my Quad years ago and visited the old ranch and Fred's grave along the Blue River.
The old homestead is maintained by the NFS

A Ride to the Fritz Ranch(

Fred Fritz and the Grizzly

The days of marauding bands of Apache were gone but life was still not easy working cattle in the rough mountainous ranges along the Blue River.

truewestmagazine.com

 

[Aaron N]

Apex predators were killed off for good reasons…they eat us and they eat the things we eat.

Bringing wolves back was a giant mistake. Bears are just as bad. The Bob is a shining example.

And yet we cry about lions and leopards being poached. By your logic they should also be exterminated

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

I was raised on a family farm and around wood lots and while I admit I would remove any threat to my livestock when I had cattle. I find myself whole heartedly agreeing with @Aaron N the world would less without bears in it.

 

[JimP]

On a similar note I think all the federal land in the west should belong to the state it’s located in not the federal government.

You'd get a argument on that one from a number of people here in the west. They figure that the first thing that the state would do is to start selling off the prime areas leaving the dirt to the residents.