Page 21 - Wyoming's Grizzly Harvest - The Story the State Wants to Bury with the Bears

Wyoming’s Grizzly Harvest “Management flexibility will be increased in these areas in an effort to discourage occupancy,” it continued. “Public harvest will be used to discourage occupancy in this portion of the Grizzly Bear Data Analysis Unit (GBDAU). The Department will not allow grizzly bear populations to reoccupy areas outside the GBDAU.” And the difference in 2016 is what? The GBDAU no longer exists, the area WGFD considers to be acceptable for grizzlies has shrunk, and “public harvest” has now expanded to “public hunting seasons.” As before, Wyoming classifies the grizzly bear as a “trophy game animal” and it is clear that when the bear is shorn of ESA protections and its destiny apportioned between the states, the only areas off-limits to trophy hunters will be the parcels of the National Parks that rest within the Primary Conservation Area. Lest there be any illusions, the grizzly will be hunted in the PCA “consistent with demographic guidelines,” if all goes according to Wyoming’s plan. Governor Mead implemented the scheme that initially worked to ensure that the wolf was delisted to secure that aim with the grizzly. Mead pushed FWS through the Obama Administration’s first accommodating Secretary of the Interior, Cowboy Ken Salazar, to restrict wolves to “Northwest Wyoming” and to categorize that as the Wolf 21