In Brief - protecting bears from harming people or themselves

E: The Environmental Magazine, May, 2001

USING DOGS TO SAVE BEARS

Bears that threaten people or wreak havoc foraging for food are a little harder to deter than the average pest. In the usual scenario, they are trapped and relocated, and if the bear returns, it must be killed--not a popular solution. It took biologist Carrie Hunt and a team of Karelian Bear Dogs to teach a life-saving lesson to problem bears.

Hunt first got the idea in 1982 to so terrify bears with dog teams that they run away, never to return. "I went looking for a breed of dog that could get out there and push bears away safely," she says. Hunt focused on Karelian Bear Dogs--a breed that originated in Finland as companions for big game hunts. In 1990, Hunt found her foundation dog, Cassie, who "showed me it could be done." Cassie and her teammates now live and train with Hunt at the Wind River Bear Institute (WRBI) in Heber City, Utah.

In Hunt's technique, a nuisance grizzly or black bear is trapped and released at the scene of its crime. Red pepper spray and rubber bullets shot from a 12-gauge shotgun sting the bear as it runs from the cage, and a firecracker-like explosion rockets it into all-out panic mode. As the bear flees, it's chased by ferociously barking dogs. It's no wonder the bears don't return.

The dog teams have left conservationists enthusiastic. Brian Peck, wildlife consultant with the Great Bear Foundation and Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project, says, "In my opinion, Carrie's work is top flight, real cutting-edge stuff that is saving grizzly bears." Hunt works with Tim Manley of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who maintains his own dog team, but Peck would like to see more Karelian teams on the job, including two in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and two in Yellowstone. Grizzly bear advocate James Musgrove agrees, adding, "Carrie Hunt and Tim Manley are doing important work, but lots of grizzly bears are still getting killed around Glacier and Yellowstone. This is a good cause that is helping bears."

The method's success rate is high: The overwhelming majority of problem bears are conditioned to move to an area where they will be safe. Derek Reich, WRBI media coordinator, reports that interest has also been expressed in using dogs to save Asiatic black bears in Japan and polar bears in Manitoba, Canada. CONTACT: Wind River Bear Institute, (435)654-6644, www.beardogs.org. --Terra Hangen

DUMP THE YAZOO PUMPS!

Last September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a recommended drainage plan for the Yazoo Backwater Area, affecting a significant portion of the Mississippi River floodplain. The $181 billion Yazoo Backwater Pumps would become the world's largest hydraulic pumping plant, with a target area of 200,000 acres of wetlands to be drained for agricultural purposes.

Then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt called the plan, which would benefit a relatively small number of landowners, the "most cockamamie" project he'd ever encountered, noting that the Yazoo River Basin is a haven for migratory birds, floodplain fisheries and wetlands wildlife.

The Yazoo Backwater Area, which extends above Vicksburg, Mississippi, approximately 60 miles along the Mississippi River, historically has functioned as a natural floodwater storage area for the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers and is isolated by a complex levee system. During low stages on the Mississippi River, flood control locks are opened seasonally to drain the interior floodplain waters. The Corps' Yazoo Pumps plan would drain water impounded by levees during high stages on the Mississippi River.

The Corps' plan was immediately criticized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which has made significant progress working with private landowners to restore more than 33,000 acres of cropland to forested wetlands and other flood-compatible uses. Oaks, cypress and other hardwood species were replanted to help restore wetlands lost due to 1930s-era federal flood control policies.

According to Charles Baxter, Yazoo Backwater Evaluation Team Leader for the USFWS, "The Corps' recommended plan would trade off nationally significant fish and wildlife resources for further agricultural drainage."

Six environmental groups--Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Mississippi Wildlife Federation, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Gulf Restoration Network and the National Audubon Society--also oppose the pump project.

Don McKenzie of the Wildlife Management Institute asks, "How much cropland does this country need? The Corps wants to spend almost $200 million draining wetlands to increase agricultural acreage while ignoring the fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending $1.6 billion per year to retire millions of acres of unneeded cropland." According to Earthjustice, this single Corps project would damage twice as many acres of wetlands as are destroyed by all other public and private projects across the nation during an entire year.

In its "Yazoo Backwater Area Reformulation Study," the (USFWS) recommends an alternative approach be found for the Yazoo Backwater Area that balances agricultural development with floodplain restoration. CONTACT: USFWS Yazoo Backwater Evaluation Team, (601)629-0600, http://southeast.fws.gov/yazoobackwater.html; Wildlife Management Institute, (501)941-7994, www.dumpthepumps.org. --Lawrence Wells