The Second Push for Grizzly Bears in California

  • by: Mario H
  • recipient: Governor of California Jerry Brown

    Have you seen a grizzly bear in California? No, I am not talking about the grizzly bear on the California state flag or seal or the one in the zoo. I'm talking about a free-roaming, magnificent beast of all bears and predators. Well, it is impossible now to see a grizzly bear in California because the last one to ever be seen was seen in 1924 in Sequoia National Park. The grizzly bears' history is a tough one; once again they are threatened from hunters to be mounted on their walls as trophies, and climate change is affecting their habitat in Wyoming. There is a solution to reintroduce and to regrow the grizzly population, and also to keep them protected in California.                          

    Grizzly bears once roamed around California but because of us humans, their only real enemy, the bears were killed for their territory to make our homes and businesses and from fear. Grizzly bears are now extinct in California and their numbers in the U.S have dropped. The number of grizzlies has dropped because we do not know how to coexist with grizzlies taking their habitat and murdering them for intruding into private land or as a sport. Once there used to be about 50,000 grizzly bears in the U.S. but now there is an estimate of only 1,500. We can only find grizzly bears in a couple states, due to an estimation about 800 live in Montana, 600 in Wyoming in Yellowstone National Park, and about a hundred or less in Idaho. The grizzly bear population is higher in Alaska, roughly about 30,000, and in British Columbia which grizzly bears are becoming endangered as well. The huge issue is that the grizzly bear is no longer protected by the Endangered Species Act, so hunters are now allowed to hunt them when they are out of prohibited areas which are safe zones where hunters can't murder the bears in. This means the remaining states where grizzlies live can decline even more, leading to extinction. The delisting of the grizzly bear was all done by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. This leads to the issue in Wyoming.

    In Wyoming grizzly bears will be allowed to be hunted for $6,000 possibly starting this fall. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service feels there is to many bears in Wyoming and a good way to control the population is killing about 12 to 20 each year. These bears should not be hunted to be stuffed as trophies or be killed to have a nice bear rug. The major reason the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service delisted the grizzly has been due to the fact of climate change is affecting their food source, lowering the chance of survival of the bears in Wyoming. In Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park the grizzly's food source such as whitebark pine, cutthroat trout, meat such as elk, and cutworm moths has declined. Keeping grizzly bears unprotected is bringing more danger to them but it may take months or years to have grizzlies protected once again under the Endangered Species Act. There is a solution of helping grizzly bears and that is bringing them back to California, which is the official state animal.

    Grizzly bears once prospered in California and are represented on the state flag and seal. If we can bring a group of grizzly bears into the Sierra Nevada Mountains once again they can hopefully repopulate and once again roam in California. We may see them as a threat because of their size and how dangerous they're made to be but the real threat has always been us. Climate change was not caused by a few people, but by everyone, and to change that we all have to change such as recycling and reducing greenhouse gases and much more. Grizzly bears can help the California environment such a spreading seeds from there feces for new plant life and help regulate other prey that destroy the environment. Another way the grizzly bear can help the California ecosystem is they stir the soil and the carcasses they leave behind help nitrogen increase in soil which is needed for all life. We have to take things step by step so the main focus of this petition is not climate change but the relocation of the grizzly bear. We want to eliminate hunting the grizzly bear so relocating them to a place of safety is better than being slaughtered. Instead of Wyoming allowing grizzly bears to be hunted for sport, both Wyoming and California can come together to relocate them and protect the bears, then go on to the major issue of climate change. Hopefully, the people of California can be open to welcoming the grizzly bear back in the state.

    Grizzly bears have had a tough history, and have recently been put back in harm's way, so let us help grizzly bears find a solution such as California who should support grizzlies and have their back. Grizzly bears should no longer be hunted for sport or out of fear. We have already wiped out numerous animals so let us not do it to the grizzly bear. Once this magnificent bear goes extinct there is no going back to save them, such as those other amazing animals that no longer walk this earth.

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