CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Back Room Deals and Dead Bears

View into the Tosi Creek watershed and Gros  Ventre Wilderness, part of the Elk Ridge Complex.  Photo: John Carter.

In a couple of sentences buried deep in so-called “annual operating instructions”, the Bridger Teton National Forest decided to allow cattle from the Upper Green River allotment, an area of 170,000 acres in the Forest, to enter the vacant Elk Ridge  Complex.    The Elk Ridge Complex of 30,000 acres is partly within the Gros Ventre Wilderness.

The Elk Ridge allotments were bought out a decade ago to remove domestic sheep from conflicts with bears.  Even after a decade of rest from livestock grazing, the Elk Ridge area remains highly degraded with plant communities that produce less than a quarter of what should be there.  Soil erosion and stream damage remain evident.   The last time it was reviewed for capacity to graze cattle was in 1978.  The Forest  Service determined then that it lacked water and livestock infrastructure needed to support cattle.

Grizzly bears find refuge and security in Elk Ridge with no livestock and few people.  However, the die-off of whitebark pine increases the stress for bears to find food.  Whitebark pine seeds are a vital high-fat, food for grizzly bears.  Whitebark pines in Wyoming are dying primarily due to a combination of an invasive fungal disease called white pine blister rust, outbreaks of native mountain pine beetles, and accelerating climate change. These combined threats led to the tree being listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act

In the fall, bears eat massive amounts of these nuts to gain fat before winter hibernation, which directly improves their........

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