Well...so, um, you should like McCain because if they didn't do the study, the grizzly bears would have increased in population but we wouldn't know about it and therefore she is made of lead!

""Let's make this an Endangered Species Act success ... get them off the list so we can manage them here in Montana," said John Youngberg, vice president of government affairs for the Montana Farm Bureau..."

What, so these asshole landowners can "manage" the grizzly bear right back onto the ESL?

No, you dicks. This means that we KNOW the population is at least somewhat healthy. If we hadn't spent the money on good science, we'd be stuck thinking the bears were going out of business, not knowing that our conservation practices were WORKING. Isn't it better to have a population large enough to "manage", c'mon, be honest, is good in the eyes of both conservationists and conservatives? That's why the act is a success. Getting species OFF should be the priority, if they go on in the first place.

Without the federal spending that McCain criticized, we (the conservationists) would still be off pissing off the ranchers and fretting about bears.

them critters is all over the north cascades nat'l. park now, too. black bears i can handle. it's getting really fucking scary to go on a hike.

gonna git me a bell, some pepper spray, and a sidearm.

Well I, for one, welcome our new grizzly overlords.

As a human, I'd like to say FUCK grizzly bears.

Chairman Mcsame would never *cough* keating five *cough* be a poor judgement maverick in not supporting the study of bears, it's just was the principle of spending money to study bears when the money could have gone directly to oil concerns. *cough* first man into space and american pow war hero *cough* it was about bears, shsmears, now we can let the oilriggers shoot themselves a bear. And that's a lot of pipe, going up from MT, in canada, and all up to AK. Money well spent by a pow war hero. well spent.

And STJA, I agree with you in principle on everything you mentioned, except that wildlife "management" has completely diametric meaning to (most) conservationists and (most) ranchers/farmers. Same goes for the core interests in removing a species from the ESL. To conservationists, it means "Hooray, we restored a species!" To landholder/rancher interests, it means, literally, "Game on!". The same thing is going on in Idaho. Gray wolves are plentiful enough again that Gov. "Butch" (Mmmm, so butch!) is pressing to have them removed so ranchers there can once again have a free-for-all in eradication...err...I mean, "management". They bank on a Republican administration staying in control because once the species is delisted, it would be that much harder to have it readded, and by then the numbers could be dwindled to the point of no return.

@6: Isn't it enough that you NW sickos do that to horses without bringing the majestic grizzly... Oh. Sorry. Missed "say".

Never mind.

If McCain were really such a maverick hell bent to curb government pork, he'd go on the warpath against corporate subsidies/tax breaks and agricultural subsidies. But he's not going to do that, that would piss off too many of his donors. Instead, he goes after legitimate scientific studies that sound stupid on the surface. McCain is a disingenuous prick.

I think it's interesting that people seem to have developed an emotional attachment to grey wolves and grizzlies, but don't really care about coyotes. Many states in the West actually pay hunters to kill coyotes, but mention a limited hunt on wolves or bears and people freak out. On one side, the argument is that they shouldn't be hunted at all, while the other claims they should be hunted like coyotes. Seems like a middle ground might be a good thing in this situation.

Um.

This is not good news.