Free Republic

Wolves and grizzly bears are mostly to blame for a steep population decline in a signature elk herd in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, government scientists said on Wednesday. The elk population in the northern section of the park is prized by sportsmen who hunt outside Yellowstone boundaries in Montana and by the millions who pour into the park each year to see wildlife. Annual counts of the northern Yellowstone elk population show it has plummeted by more than 70 percent since 1995, falling from 16,791 to fewer than 5,000 today. Biologists said wolves and grizzlies are the...

DENVER (AP) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has endorsed Tom Tancredo, the American Constitution Party candidate for governor. Palin urged voters Monday to support Tancredo, saying he will fight for lower taxes and smaller government. The 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee also said Tancredo will start growing the economy.

We’ve identified Democrats’ fatal Achilles’ heel in the upcoming elections: it’s Bubbies. Nannas. Gammas. Irmas, Emmas, Constances, Heloises, Josephinas, Katherines, you name ‘em. GRANDMOTHERS. If grandmothers, coast to coast, many of whom have blind-voted Democrat for decades, can be convinced that the Democrat Party as it exists currently under Obama is a grave danger to the nation’s future…and the future of their beloved GRANDCHILDREN…we believe there will be no force on Heaven or this great Earth that can stop an army of motivated, sassy, ass-kicking blue hairs from decimating the Left in the elections to come. Not just in November,...

Women Of America Are Rising Up, Again! (Mama Grizzlies) 84rules July 9, 2010

Last summer I stood on the grassy bank of an Alaskan waterway that was teeming with salmon to watch part of Alaska’s brown bear population forage, fight, feed, and fend off enemies to survive. I joined Fish and Game biologists to observe 42 of these majestic wild animals all within eyesight, all at once. Even though I’ve lived all my life in the “Last Frontier,” I still find days like that absolutely fascinating! And I swear the hardest workers on the water were those “mama bears.” Obviously not waiting for another bear to do the work for them, the mama...

The Blinn Buccaneers may want to play the Butler Grizzlies as their first opponent every year. For the second year in a row, Blinn upset the defending national champions and now the Bucs anxiously await the next NJCAA poll to see if they will assume the top spot just like last year. No. 1 Butler came to the Bucs’ home field and looked to have the game in hand early due to Blinn mistakes. But despite cramps and injuries, the Bucs came back in the fourth quarter to tie it and then go ahead by a touchdown with 1:39 left...

The first-ever scientific census shattered earlier estimates that said there were at least 250-350 bears roaming the area. More recent data placed the minimum population at around 563 bears. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is in charge of regulating endangered species, is currently reviewing the bears' status in Montana as part of a five-year review required by the Endangered Species Act. The study's results will help biologists determine whether the bear still needs federal protection, a conclusion due out early next year.

Advice from FWP not always applicable. If you're on a sight-seeing trip through the mountains while carrying your hunting rifle, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' advice regarding grizzly bears is great. But if you ever hope to actually fill a tag with an elk or deer, the advice has some problems. Making noise For example, one piece of advice to avoid bears is to make plenty of noise as you hike through bear country. Another is to hunt in pairs or groups. Yet another is to avoid cover that might hide a bear. Unfortunately, most hunters would agree that the...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. An Arkansas man filed a federal lawsuit against N-B-A star Kobe Bryant claiming the Lakers guard deliberately elbowed him during a game last year against the Memphis Grizzlies. Bill Geeslin was a spectator in the stands when the Lakers played the Grizzlies in Memphis last November. His three-page lawsuit filed Tuesday claims that Bryant came off the court during play, landed on Geeslin and "without provocation" committed assault and battery when he violently struck Geeslin with his elbow. Geeslin claims seeks more than 75-thousand dollars in damages for unspecified injuries that required medical attention. Geeslin's attorney, Robert Coleman,...

Interior bears have been seen spreading northward over the years. Shotgun-toting guards who scan the Arctic Ocean for white polar bears spent last week looking for a brown mass of fur on the reddening tundra surrounding this Inupiat village. The grizzly, a threat to anglers and backcountry hikers across much of Alaska, isn't a problem here. Usually. They're rarely spotted this far north. But two brown bear sightings recently put some residents on edge and prompted managers at a research area east of the village to evacuate scientists doing fieldwork on the tundra. Polar bears, which top 1,000 pounds, commonly...

Sheep don't mix well with grizzly bears and wolves. Now they won't mix at all on more than 70,000 acres in the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness. A 74,000-acre sheep grazing allotment south of Big Timber in the Gallatin National Forest has been permanently closed and the ranchers who used it for generations have been paid to move their sheep elsewhere... The agreement is the eighth -- and second-largest -- in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem in recent years that has led to the retirement of about 300,000 acres from grazing. The latest involves the Ash Mountain and Iron Mountain allotments used for generations...

WASHINGTON - Noting that the grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone area has thrived in recent years, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced that it plans to remove federal protections for the animals in the areas around the national park. "A population that was once plummeting towards extinction is now recovered," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in making the announcement. "These bears are now no longer endangered" and should be removed from the Endangered Species Act listing. The Interior Department, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, implements the Endangered Species Act. "We are sure that these bears will have the...

The goal of Grizzly People, its website explains, is "to elevate the grizzly to the kindred state of the whale and dolphin through supportive education in the hopes that humans will learn to live in peace with the bear, wilderness and fellow humans." But, as Werner Herzog's latest documentary, "Grizzly Man," demonstrates, the best way for man to live at peace with the bear is to not romanticize grizzlies and to give them a wide berth. Alas, Grizzly People founder Timothy Treadwell had Disney-fied the object of his affection. So, as Herzog chronicles, the 46-year-old bear activist and his 37-year-old...

MISSOULA, Mont. — As the Bush administration prepares to remove Yellowstone's grizzly bears from the endangered-species list, a schism has emerged in the environmental movement over whether the bears remain at risk. The nation's largest environmental group, the National Wildlife Federation, supports delisting the bears, whose numbers have bounced back impressively after three decades of federal protection. But other powerful organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, are threatening to sue the Bush administration if, as expected, it removes Yellowstone grizzlies from the list. "The recovery has been a huge success, but removing federal protection...

BILLINGS, Mont., Dec. 29 (AP) - Thirty-one grizzly bears in and around Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana have died this year as a result of human actions, the largest total in any year since grizzlies were listed as a threatened species three decades ago and about double the number killed in 2003. Seven were hit by trains or cars. Ten were killed illegally, often shot and left to die. Thirteen were killed by wildlife officials because they had menaced humans or otherwise become a nuisance. One was killed in self-defense. State and federal wildlife officials attribute the rise in...

CONDON, Mont. -- Along about Labor Day, a tall, dark stranger known as "M-23" is likely to take a 40-mile trek south to Seeley Lake. There, peering out from a wooded, marshy area, he'll see tourists sunning themselves outside lakefront cabins and motorboats buzzing through the placid waters of this popular resort. Chances are, nobody will see M-23, which may be just as well. Weighing 325 pounds and standing more than 6 feet tall, with a distinctive shoulder hump, he sports long scimitar-like claws and has a face scarred from years of vicious fights with other male grizzly bears. Though...

NOXON, Mont. — Before the Europeans came to North America, the grizzly bear reigned, hunting the plains as far east as Minnesota, south to the deserts of Mexico and along the salmon-choked rivers of the Pacific Coast. Two centuries of settlement beat them back, and now just two main populations remain outside of Alaska — one with 400 to 600 bears in and around Glacier National Park, the other in Yellowstone, with 500 to 600 bears. They are designated as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but many biologists consider their population levels healthy. Three tiny populations, however, were stranded...

County disclaims arena cost overruns $30,000 approved for laptop computers By Michael Erskine erskine@gomemphis.com December 3, 2002 The County Commission on Monday passed a resolution disavowing responsibility for any cost overruns on the downtown arena project. County Atty. Donnie Wilson said the resolution wouldn't absolve the county from any future liabilities, but commissioners passed it anyway. Also Monday, the commission voted to amend the budget to appropriate $30,000 to buy laptop computers for commissioners, though some may pay for their own. Commissioner John Willingham proposed the arena resolution, which declared that the commission "will not assume any funding responsibility for...

Land Near Yellowstone Added to National Forest BOZEMAN, Montana, July 24, 2002 (ENS) - The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has protected almost 1,300 acres of prime elk and grizzly bear habitat northwest of Yellowstone National Park, in the Gallatin National Forest. The deal, completed Monday, is intended as the first phase of a two year purchase that will protect 3,246 acres of private lands in the Taylor Fork drainage, one of Montana's most scenic wildlife and recreation areas. The land is being conveyed to the U.S. Forest Service for addition to the Gallatin National Forest. Funding for the...

Grizzly Team Shows Value of Species Protection LawWASHINGTON, DC, July 23, 2002 (ENS) - Protection under federal and state law is critical to conserving grizzly bears in the lower 48 states, a new report concludes. The study could offer support for legislation aimed at strengthening the federal Endangered Species Act, and counter arguments for weakening protections for grizzly bears. The debate over the effectiveness of the 1973 Endangered Species Act ranges from arguments to weaken its protections to making it stronger, but there has been little good evidence for either side. Now new research shows that legal protections are...