Document text
41 °F 5 Day Forecast Monday, December 8, 2003 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | eSouthernOregon | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend December 5, 2003 Groups want to halt killing of black bears By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Conservationists and animal-rights activists again filed a lawsuit to halt the government’s participation in the killing of coastal Oregon black bears that damage private timber stands. The groups have asked a federal judge in Portland to force Wildlife Services, an arm of the federal Department of Agriculture, to do more studies on non-lethal techniques and how it impacts the overall bear population and the environment before its agents start trapping damage-causing bears next spring. The suit, filed last week, is similar to an unsuccessful suit the groups filed last year challenging a new Environmental Assessment the agency conducted to justify the program. But a federal judge threw out the suit, declaring that the groups did not have the legal standing to sue. That opened the door for Wildlife Services agents this year to kill 90 bears that fed on bark stripped from trees that die from the damage. The suit alleges that Wildlife Services inadequately looked at the program’s impacts to the coast’s bear populations, whether hazing or other non-lethal options would work and whether the economic impact of killing bears to protect private timber stands was properly chronicled under federal law. Advertisement "These are questions they legally have to answer, and they didn’t adequately answer them to the extent that they should have," said Sally Mackler of the Sierra Club, one of 10 plaintiffs in the case. Dave Williams, who manages the Wildlife Services program in Oregon, said the environmental assessment (EA) signed last spring adequately addressed the issues as required by environmental laws. "We’re in the process of doing exactly what we should do," Williams said. "We’re gathering the information up and measuring it against the EA. If there are any different impacts than what we analyzed, we’ll adapt the EA." Lori Cooper, staff attorney for the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, said Thursday that she believes the National Environmental Policy Act requires Wildlife Services to conduct more research before it resumes any bear-killing next spring. Cooper said she believes the law requires Wildlife Services to conduct an environmental impact statement — a study document much larger and in-depth than the assessment — before any more bears are killed. "This EA covers the entire coast," Cooper said. "That’s a huge geographical area, and they’ve killed up to 220 bears in one year." Begun in the 1980s, the Wildlife Services program is built around the 1931 Animal Damage Control Act that requires the federal government to help curb agricultural damage caused by wildlife. In the spring, some bears target young trees on industrial forest lands, stripping the bark to feed on the sugary layer inside. The stripped trees often die, but the damage often ends when other food sources are available. There are an estimated 25,000 black bears in Oregon, with about half of those living west of the Cascades, according to ODFW statistics. Wildlife Services agents kill about 1 percent of the bears annually, and sport-hunters in Western Oregon kill about six times that number, ODFW statistics show. In Western Oregon, private timber owners and county governments pay for more than 80 percent of the program’s annual cost of about $101,000. The federal share, about $16,000 a year, primarily covers management and oversight. Wildlife Services’ environmental study claimed last year that its agents save private timber owners more than $1 million a year. But the agency said last spring that it miscalculated those benefits, which actually amount to about $290,0000, Wildlife Services documents show. The program operated without an environmental assessment through last summer. The assessment led to the April decision that the program has no significant environmental impact. The groups filed suit last April in U.S. District Court, where Judge Ancer Haggerty ruled the groups did not have the legal standing to be a party in the case. The new lawsuit beefs up the groups’ claims for legal standing, Cooper said. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Real Estate Showcase Food for Thought Hike of the Week Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Openings Prime Times