Bears Matter

...because they are sentient beings like us!

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Orphaned bear cubs being rehabilitated for future release back into the wild.

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Bears Matter

Company Relinquishing Oil and Gas Leases near Glaceir National Park

Thursday, 29 April 2010 21:28

ConocoPhillips retires leases next to Glacier park

Note: A major victory for wildlife and clean water generally, and grizzlies specifically.

By MATT VOLZ (AP) – 22 hours ago http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTKmIoESLS-ZeuLn8nGLDPZBODFAD9FCBVFO3

HELENA, Mont. — ConocoPhillips is relinquishing its interest in oil and gas leases on 169,000 acres next to Glacier National Park, saying Wednesday that a yearslong court-ordered suspension had brought any chance of developing the land to a standstill.

The Houston-based oil giant has owned the leases in the Flathead River's North Fork watershed since 1982, ConocoPhillips spokesman Charlie Rowton said. But a mid-1980s court ruling found the Bureau of Land Management's leases had not been properly issued and suspended surface drilling in the area.

The company believes it could have developed the leases in an environmentally responsible manner, but it agreed when Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester recently asked ConocoPhillips to voluntarily retire the leases, Rowton said.

The company will not be compensated, he said.

"They asked, we had the leases we hadn't been able to move forward with, and we agreed to their request," he said of the Montana Democrats.

The land is in a prime recreation area next to one of Montana's top attractions, Glacier National Park. Tourism statistics show that more than 2 million visitors spend more than $150 million annually in the region.

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The Grizzly Manifesto: In Defense of the Great Bear -New Book

Thursday, 29 April 2010 21:12

The Grizzly Manifesto
In Defence of the Great Bear

"Gailus delivers a left hook to Parks Canada's bogus claims to put conservation ahead of tourist development, and gives a well deserved right cross to our cynical Alberta Government, which seems bent on letting grizzly bears blink out into oblivion. If you care about wild bears and wild lands, read this book."

— Sid Marty recently won the Grant MacEwan Literary Arts Award,
Albert'a most prestigous writing prize. His latest book,
Black Grizzly at Whiskey Creek, was a finalist
for the Governor General's Literary Award.

Like the roar of an angry bear, this book should set your pulse racing. Jeff Gailus weaves science, policy, and personal experience into a passionate and provocative critique of Canada's failed efforts to halt the decline of the grizzly bear.

— David R. Boyd is an environmental lawyer, professor, activist
and author of Unnatural Law: Rethinking Canadian
Environmental Law and Policy.

Following in the Great Bears' footsteps from Yellowstone National Park through the Canadian Rockies to the Muskwa-Kechika wilderness, Jeff Gailus explores the unique biological and political circumstances that make it difficult for grizzly bears and people to share the same landscapes.

Shocking and compassionate, The Grizzly Manifesto provides an insightful look into the complex and sometimes insidious political machinations that will determine the fate of grizzly bears in the North American West.

The grizzly bear is something of a survivor. It arrived in North America some 50,ooo years ago, and has outlived legions of equally formidable carnivores, such as short-faced bears and sabre-toothed cats, and survived the arrival of spear-wielding humans 13,000 years ago.

The arrival of gun-toting Europeans , however, proved to be a somewhat more formidable problem. In the last 200 years, the grizly bear has been exterminated from much of its range. Despite the relatively successful recovery of the grizzly bear in and around Yellowstone National Park, the bears’ decline continues largely unchecked.