Bring grizzlies back
During my 36 years in northern Idaho, I have strongly supported restoration efforts for wildlife species which have been lost from our region.
Wolves are an example of these successful efforts. After cooperative work between the Nez Perce Tribe, federal land managers and others, they’re back on the landscape where they are again playing a vital role ensuring healthier big game herds and intact ecosystems.
We need to do the same for grizzly bears. Currently, populations are doing well in two of the Montana recovery areas designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but these two small bear populations are isolated from each other and are thus in danger of inbreeding depression. Idaho wildlands in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness once harbored healthy populations of grizzlies, and the habitat remains as “grizzly bear promised land.” Reintroduction to these areas could provide a crucial link between populations to the south and to the north.
Many of us recreate in that country, and knowing that grizzlies are back on the landscape, fulfilling their ecological role where they lived for millennia, would add immensely to the experience. Yes, we need to take the proper steps to ensure our safety out in the wild, but ecosystem function is greatly compromised without one of the top predators.
Recently, U.S. Fish and Wildlife rightfully rejected several Western state petitions to delist grizzly bears. So let’s write a new recovery plan and continue restoring this incredible animal to its rightful home.
Al Poplawsky
Moscow
Thanks, Marvin Dugger
On Jan. 19, Marty Trillhasse introduced a new guest opinion writer, Steve Taggart, to replace Marvin Dugger in the Tribune Opinion section.
While I strongly disagreed with Mr. Dugger’s positions on saving the lower Snake River dams at the expense of our “wild” salmon and steelhead, I appreciate that he held those opinions honestly.
Marvin Dugger was most instrumental and effective in his campaigning for the Lewiston High School bond issue.
Without his efforts, along with those of Nathan H. Alford and Brad Rice, then president of the Lewiston School Board, the bond would likely have failed once again.
Marvin Dugger’s effectiveness in conveying the idea that our new high school would be a world-class training and educational center for both vocationally and academically oriented students was likely the reason for the support from business, labor and 75% of the voters.
Mr. Taggart will have big shoes to fill.
Keith E. Carlson
Lewiston
