Last Tuesday, the grizzly bears that live in Yellowstone National Park socked in for the winter. Some got in some last-minute feeding, perhaps gorging on high-calorie whitebark pine nuts cadged from an unlucky ground squirrel's cache. Others were digging out their dens with those huge, powerful claws, getting their beds shipshape for the coming hibernation. And many were already snugly tucked in for the long sleep. But in Washington, D.C., far away from the largest grizzly population in the lower 48, humans were making portentous pronouncements that could roil even the fattest grizzly's peaceful slumber. The word from Washington: There are enough grizzlies in the Yellowstone area to declare that the bears are no longer threatened and to take Endangered Species Act protections away from them.
Environmentalists are divided over the decision, with some advocates arguing that it is premature and others supporting it. But all of them, as well as federal wildlife officials, agree that the grizzly's comeback is due in large part to the Endangered Species Act, which has helped preserve the big predator's habitat. And environmentalists are gearing up to fight a new bill, written by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., that they say would fatally weaken the ESA.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/11/23/grizzly/index_np.html
