This was in WSU News today

[wolfbait]

This is just one more BS fake story for the brain-washed biologist and city people to read. Remember the lies that that David Mech told to further the wolf agenda? Remember the lie of how the beaver had multiplied??  THEN COME TO FIND OUT THE AZZHOES HAD PLANT 16O some beaver. Wellcome to the USFWS propaganda machine. Not to worry, we have WAcoyote to straighten us all out. WDFW is true blue, they would never tell a lie! Wolves will not impact the game herds in WA.

I suppose jackelope is going to delete this thread now? Oh wait this is now 2013 and it's harder to hide the truth.

I'm confused. Could you please clearly state your position on this issue?

THE WILDLANDS PROJECT  http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/wildlands_project_step_by_step.htm

[headshot5]

The article makes it sound like berries are the staple of the grizzly bear's diet making them out to be vegans or something.
If you look further a grizzly will eat a variety of foods of which berries is only a minor part during only a portion of the year.

Yep the article makes it sound like berries are on the bush year-round.     

[wolfbait]

 This "study" shows the wolf as a tool, the same as the spotted owls were used to shut down logging. 
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A new study suggests that the return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is beginning to bring back a key part of the diet of grizzly bears that has been missing for much of the past century—berries that help bears put on fat before going into hibernation.
    The report was published today by scientists from Oregon State University and Washington State University in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The researchers found that the level of berries consumed by Yellowstone grizzlies is significantly higher now that shrubs are starting to recover from >"overbrowsing by elk herds"<.

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 The berry bushes also produce flowers of value to pollinators such as butterflies, insects and hummingbirds, as well as food for other mammals and birds.

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    The report said berries may be sufficiently important to grizzly bear diet and health that they >"could be considered in deciding whether to change the “threatened” status of grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act."<

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    “Studies like this also point to the need for an ecologically effective number of wolves,” said co-author Robert Beschta, an OSU professor emeritus. >“As we learn more about the cascading effects they have on ecosystems", the issue may be more than having just enough individual wolves so they can survive as a species.<
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In some situations, we may wish to consider the >"numbers"< necessary to help control overbrowsing, allow tree and shrub recovery, and restore ecosystem health.”

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   The study found that the percentage of fruit in grizzly bear scat in recent years almost doubled during August.
    There is precedent for high levels of ungulate foraging causing problems for grizzly bears. Before going extinct in the American Southwest by the early 1900s, grizzly bear diets shifted toward livestock depredation, the report noted, because of lack of plant-based food caused by >"livestock overgrazing".<



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    Increases in berry production in Yellowstone may also provide a buffer against other ecosystem shifts, the researchers noted; whitebark pine nut production, a favored bear food, may be facing pressure from >"climate change".< Grizzly bear survival declined during years of low nut production.



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    Livestock grazing in grizzly bear habitat adjacent to the national park, and bison foraging in the park, likely also contribute to high foraging pressure on shrubs and forbs, the report said.

In addition to eliminating wolf-livestock conflicts, >"retiring livestock allotments"< in the grizzly bear recovery zone adjacent to Yellowstone could benefit bears through increases in plant foods.
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http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005148318

[wolfbait]

A New Vision For North Cascades -- Environmentalists' Concepts Would Transcend Boundaries http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19931103&slug=1729774


Friedman says a reserve must be big enough to accommodate the ecosystem's most wide-ranging creatures, the grizzly and gray wolf.

"It doesn't matter whose land it is," he says. "The critters don't know."

If people really want to live in greater harmony with the land and other species, Friedman says, it's got to start somewhere - and the North Cascades is a better candidate than most.

[villageidiot]

 This is all great if we lived in the Garden of Eden.  Unfortunately, we have to raise food for ourselves and the wolves eat our food.  When King David was a sheperd boy he killed a lion and a bear to protect his sheep.  We are still raising our food and if we allow wolves to eat our food we are doomed.  This might possibly work in Yellowstone or wilderness areas but the wolves don't know boundaries and our wilderness areas are too small to keep these killers inside.  If they eat our food we need to be able to protect our food same as shooting a rabbit eating our lettuce, gophers eating our carrots.  We can't allow vermin to eat our food.  The city dwellers that worshop the wolves have no concern about the American rancher or farmer that is producing their food with enormous govt. regulations that keep it safe.  They are bringing on the purchase of food from foreign countries that have few to no regulations.  The American rancher and farmer will be forced to break the law if he wants to survive.  If the law prevails every farmer and rancher will eventually be locked up for protecting his crops.  If the farmer prevails then the wolves will dissapear.  I put my bet on the farmers.  They have learned a lot and are making progress on dealing with the wolves without govt. help.

[pianoman9701]

A New Vision For North Cascades -- Environmentalists' Concepts Would Transcend Boundaries http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19931103&slug=1729774


Friedman says a reserve must be big enough to accommodate the ecosystem's most wide-ranging creatures, the grizzly and gray wolf.

"It doesn't matter whose land it is," he says. "The critters don't know."

If people really want to live in greater harmony with the land and other species, Friedman says, it's got to start somewhere - and the North Cascades is a better candidate than most.

Friedman is a wolf hugger. What do we expect him to say? What I don't get is that these people get away with printing this Eco-Utopian crap like it has any bearing whatsoever on present day life.

[Humptulips]

I know they have tall fences around some of the berry farms to keep the elk out.  Haven't heard of the elk eating the actual berries, but they do eat some bushes and trample a lot of bushes.  I know they eat salal bushes, but haven't seen where they eat the actual berry.  Interesting to know.

 

Eating the bushes does the damage. Eating berries is not the problem.

It has been my experience that a certain amount of browsing spurs berry growth.

[Curly]

Sounds like it is time for a Grizzly bear season AND a wolf season.     

[jackmaster]

Sounds like it is time for a Grizzly bear season AND a wolf season.     

damn SKIPPY