Should Grizzly Bears Roam California Again?

Media
Jul 27
2 min read

A grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park | June 2, 2016 | Photo: Jim Peaco, National Park Service

Though it’s emblazoned on our state flag, the last California grizzly bear died more than a century ago. Now, a group of Democratic lawmakers wants to consider bringing back the species in the state — despite misgivings from communities that would be the most vulnerable to bear attacks if they return.

As CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow explains, California was home to as many as 10,000 grizzly bears before the Gold Rush. But systematic extermination by settlers wiped out the species in the state.

After passing through the state Senate, a bill before the Assembly would direct the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to examine the feasibility of reintroducing the apex predator. Tribes, environmentalists and animal welfare organizations support the bill, arguing that the bears improve the ecosystem and reintroducing them would right an ecological wrong.

“I can see the ways in which my homeland has suffered from the loss of iconic species such as the grizzly, and that this loss lingers in our heart and in the attenuation of a millennia-old relationship.”—Tiana Williams-Claussen, Director of the Yurok Tribe’s Wildlife Department

The bill’s Democratic author and coauthors represent predominantly urban districts in Southern California — a sharp contrast to the rural communities, ranchers and hunting groups that oppose the bill.

These critics, along with nearly all Republican senators who voted against the measure, say it’s preposterous to consider reintroducing an aggressive, apex predator to California — especially in rural places already overwhelmed with conflicts with other predators, such as mountain lions and wolves.

It would also be cruel to the grizzlies, “who don’t have any say in it,” said Elizabeth Washoe, a Native American from Modoc County.

“Where they’re at, they’re living a pretty good life, and we’d take them and put them here in a landscape that is so dramatically changed from what it was the last time that the bears were truly living a good life here. … It feels egotistical.”—Elizabeth Washoe, a Native American