May 7, 1999 Ravalli Republic article: GREAT FALLS (AP) Cashing in on trouble grizzlies. Blackfeet Tribe has economic interest in getting rid of troublesome bears
The Bitterroot River headwater creeks that originate on the divide between the Bitterroot valley and the Bitterroot Selway Wilderness will provide the highways the grizzly bears will follow when the food supply does not meet their needs. in the Bitterroot Selway Frank Church Wilderness.
In addition the core areas, with their accompanying corridors and buffers zones, put much of the private land in Missoula and Ravalli Counties, not to mention counties in Idaho, within the grizzly bears' recovery areas.
Bust: Grizzlies are a threat to residents and are holding up potential development of the tribe's natural resources.
Boon: The tribe would like to auction to the highest bidder a few permits annually to hunt problem bears on the reservation.
That would bring badly needed revenue while reducing the number of human-bear encounters outside the designated recovery area said Hugh Monroe, a member of the Tribal Council.
"There's just too damn many bears," Monroe said.
The tribe's unusual proposal was outlined at Wednesday's closing session of a meeting of a committee in charge of the bear's recovery in the northern Continental Divide bear ecosystem.
Dan Carney, a tribal wildlife biologist, said his research suggests a grizzly hunting permit might sell for $5,000 to $15,000.
Permits only would be sold to hunt nuisance bears that would be killed by rangers anyway, which, probably means only one to two bears a year would be hunted, Camey said.
It is illegal now to hunt grizzlies, a threatened species. And permitting bear hunts would require amending a federal rule on the "taking" of bears. It also would have to be proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has not indicated any support.
The idea stems from heightened concern about grizzlies moving onto low elevation, private land on the reservation and elsewhere.
On both sides of the Continental Divide, grizzlies are following river corridors to ranches and farms and into subdivisions and small towns.
Last year, a record 263 grizzly-human incidents were reported; 191 on the west side of the divide, 72 to the east. And 82 percent of the conflicts occurred on private land, with more than half of those near residences.
The total bear population is estimated at 300. Last year, 19 grizzlies were killed, the most in more than 10 years.
Nearly of [a] quarter of [the] Blackfeet Reservation is within the grizzly bear recovery area. But bears are showing up as far east as Valier and almost to Cut Bank.