2017-03-13-minutes-presentation-from-fish-&-wildlife

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2017-03-13 MINUTES 2 Alternative C: Import 25 bears & monitor them noting it could take 60 - 100 years to reach a population of 200 bears. Alternative D: Import 5 – 7 bears a year for as long as it takes to reach 200 bears through natural means. This would take approximately 25 years. Mr. Oelfke informed the Commissioners that since this plan was an experiment, they had greater flexibility within it for managing any bears that came into conflict with farmers, miners, and those in forestry. He said a management plan would be worked on once the grizzly restoration plan was completed. He said that the primary source of bear population would be coming from British Columbia and Montana where there are healthy bear populations that feed on food sources that the North Cascades also had: berries, grubs and small mammals. He said that not a lot of bears feed on fish. Mr. Oelfke discussed the environmental consequences of whether or not bears were reintroduced to the North Cascades. He said the bears would see benefits, black bears would be impacted minimally, the recreational experience would be impacted positively, there was low potential for bear/human conflict, low potential for impacts to agriculture, livestock, and mining, and positive impacts for the tribes. There was roundtable Q&A between the Board members and Jack Oelfke, Chief of Resources, North Cascades National Park Service Complex & Gregg Kurz, Carnivore Biologist, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Fish and Wildlife Office. There was discussion on the caring capacity and the analysis done on the caring capacity. Mr. Oelfke said that comments regarding the grizzly bear restoration plan, and which of the 4 alternatives were preferred, were being accepted through a “new” deadline of April 28, 2017. He stated that implementation would be at a minimum of a year if not longer. He said the plan could be found at www.parkplanning.nps.gov/grizzlydeis. The Board thanked Mr. Oelfke and Mr. Kurz for agreeing to attend the meeting and apologized that none of them were able to make it to the presentation they did in the Upper County in February due to scheduling conflicts. The Board indicated that they would prepare a response in the near future to be considered as part of the record. Meeting adjourned at 12:10 p.m. KITTITAS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS DEPUTY CLERK OF THE BOARD KITTITAS COUNTY, WASHINGTON