As usual, I opened the door to Mom’s apartment, where I am staying, and found the local newspaper on the floor outside. Today, the newspaper headline shrieked: “Vote Delayed on Troubled Health Care Bill”. For once, some good news. I have insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and I love it. The system is not broken, although a few states have not managed it well. Should the ACA be repealed and replaced, I will be one of those affected the most thanks to proposed increases for seniors.
For the first time in my life, everything I value in our government is under siege: Department of the Interior funding (public lands, National Monuments, National Park Service), EPA oversight of industrial pollution, economic justice, religious freedom, and just about everything else on the current administration’s hit list. None saddens me more, however, than the delisting from the endangered species list of the great Grizzly Bear. When I read that last week, my sunny outlook turned dark.
Delisting by itself is not so bad. Grizz recovery is successful in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The key issue is that once delisted, Grizz management reverts to management by individual states, in this case, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. I love the scenic beauty of these states; indeed, they are part of my home territory. Their wildlife management, however, is abysmal.
For example, when our government delisted wolves a few years back, Wyoming immediately set up a hunting program near Yellowstone. It was all about trophy hunting, and the management was so poor and the loss of wolves so huge, that the federal courts revoked Wyoming’s management duties and relisted the wolf. More recently, the courts have affirmed the right of Wyoming to create wolf trophy hunting zones, and Congress is poised to delist the wolf once again. Now, Grizz. No one actually eats Grizzly Bear meat, it is all about the trophy heads. Barbaric, in my opinion. We have pushed both wolves and grizzlies towards extinction before and can do it again without proper management.
Why this:
At least, for today, I still have health insurance and disabled folks have Medicaid. What will tomorrow bring? How is all this making “America Great Again?”
Want to read more about Grizzlies?
More about delisting
Grizzly Bear Delisting, High Country News
Grizzly Man’s Last Stand, Men’s Journal
Some excellent books by the author’s mentioned in the Men’s Journal Article”
Grizzly Years, Doug Peacock
The Lost Grizzlies, Rick Bass
