The Threats to the Grizzly's Fragile Recovery are Expanding

As the number of grizzly bears has grown, so has interest in removing them from protection of the Endangered Species Act.

It’s too soon. Despite the truth of more bears, some lingering trends have potential to put their still-tentative recovery in reverse.

For example, increasing recreational and residential development are underway at the same time. Each can block a variety of critters from freely moving around to meet the demands of life, and thus set brakes on the bear’s recovery

Likewise, recovery seems likely to be slowed by a combination of population crash of insect pollinators and intensity of western US drought. Each alone raises questions about the future of the food supply so basic to animal life and livelihood.

The pollinator crash is as good a place to start as any. This trend alone has inspired headlines about threats to the human food supply. One headline declared that “Poor Pollination Led To More Than 400,000 Excess Deaths Due To Lower Crop Yields.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/02/27/the-threats-to-the-grizzlys-fragile-recovery-are-expanding/