"Grizzly Wars" is the saga of the "ghost bears" of the North Cascades

"Grizzly Wars: The Public Fight Over the Great Bear"

by David Knibb

Eastern Washington University Press, 296 pp., $29.95

As many as 100,000 grizzly bears once ranged across western North America from Mexico to the Yukon. From the beginning, the great bears commanded the attention of those who encountered them. On May 11, 1805, Captain William Clark wrote in his journal, "These bear being so hard to die rather intimidates us all. I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen."

The feeling persisted among the waves of trappers, miners, ranchers and railroad men that followed. By 1975, when the grizzly was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, less than 2 percent of the original population remained.

Bellevue conservation writer David Knibb ("Backyard Wilderness") presents a compelling and detailed investigation into the effort to preserve and recover this enigmatic species. Unlike most books on the subject, which focus on Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies, Knibb locates his case study on the remnant grizzly population in Washington's North Cascades.

Yes, we've got them — for now. The North Cascades is one of six designated recovery areas in the U.S. harboring an estimated 10 to 20 bears. But as Knibb points out, unless efforts are taken to augment this small, isolated population with captured bears from larger populations elsewhere, the "ghost bears" of the Cascades are destined for extinction.

We follow the fate of Washington's grizzlies through the eyes of biologists, wildlife managers, agency officials, and passionate locals on both sides of the bear divide. The author traces the glacial process of bear recovery after the 1995 Republican takeover of Congress and into the Bush administration when the Endangered Species Act itself was under assault.

Knibb shows how political forces, through funding cuts, management shifts, and intimidation, can sabotage species recovery. Under the Bush White House, federal agencies switched emphasis from recovering remnant populations like the North Cascades' to removing larger populations like Yellowstone's from Endangered Species Act protection. Such delisting of endangered species removes federal protections and returns management to the states.

Knibb is remarkably evenhanded in his treatment, relying on extensive interviews with those on all sides of the issue and close examination of the public record. But as his story expands from Washington to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Canada, the forces at work against the recovery of the great bear — both biological and political — remain constant.

Knibb points out that government agencies' erratic management and skimpy funding reflect the public's sharply polarized attitudes toward the animal's recovery. People tend to admire the bear as the embodiment of wilderness or fear it as a threat to their lives and livelihoods.

The funds needed for recovery are not huge, Knibb tells us; "they are like a bushel in a trainload of wheat." But, he concludes, "people are divided over whether to save grizzlies at all, and how much to spend doing it."