LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
HUFFINGTON
02.23.14
Into
the Wild
N THIS WEEK’S issue, Kate Sheppard
explores the fate of
one of America’s most
iconic species — the grizzly bear.
Today, the grizzly population
stands at more than 700, up from
a mere 136 in 1975. As the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service prepares
to potentially remove the bear
from the endangered species list,
some environmentalists and scientists are protesting and calling
the move premature.
They point to a beetle infestation that has been killing whitebark pine trees across Montana,
Wyoming and Idaho, which
started back in 2003 and grew to
staggering levels by 2009. What
ART STREIBER
I
does this mean for grizzlies? The
trees produce cones that contain
pine seeds, which are a source of
food for the bears.
The government is more optimistic about the bears’ ability to
survive without whitebark. “Bears
are omnivorous. They use a wide
variety of foods,” said Christopher
Servheen, the grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the Fish and
Wildlife Service. “They’re not dependent on whitebark. They eat it
when it’s available. When it’s not
available, they eat other stuff.”
According to some studies,
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