[Ski]

^ maintaining contiguous wildlife migration corridors has been one of the management objectives of public lands managers at NFS for decades, so that situation may or may not exist south of the border.

[Dave Workman]

[Bernardo]

Someone mentioned earlier that if the USG didn't have the money there were parties willing to donate funding. I don't know if that is true. Would probably require some kind of law or new regulation because a gift can turn into a perpetual stream of costs so gifts can't just be accepted. On the other hand, the whole program may be included in some existing bucket and not need any specific funding. Agency and political leadership priorities could be more important than funding. Taking it to the extreme, would the courts allow the President to block bear resettlement deemed necessary to protect an endangered species?

[treeswarper]

[cdestroyer]

Many years ago when I was a kid, I was riding in the jump seats of an international with a couple of men, my dad included. We were driving down this back country road just sightseeing when a large griz came out of the brush and ran down the road in front of us. I don't know how accurate the speedometer was but it stayed on a steady 40mph on the heels of the bear. There was some talk about if the bear decided to trash the truck would the men have to kill it. The talk wandered here and there but the general consensus was that it would be a tough call to get it into the back of the truck. We came to a bridge just a tad longer than the truck but the bear decided to cross the creek without the bridge and never broke stride. Had we been looking for a camping or fishing spot I think we would have chosen someplace else. Best thing to do with a bear this big is leave the damn thing alone!

[cartman]

[treeswarper]

[Dave Workman]

[treeswarper]

It isn't just an "old growth" thing. It is also a tree density thing. In some of the doghair thickets on the eastside, the trees are small but the sun is still not hitting the ground. Those thickets are best left to burn up if mechanical treatment is forbidden. They might provide some winter protection--might, but are otherwise just sucking up too much water and nutrients to ever grow into anything.

[Dave Workman]

[Bedivere]

The only thing certain to happen if Grizzlies are reintroduced is that someone *will* be mauled or killed. Not a question of if, but when.

[Kim Brown]

[treeswarper]

[Kim Brown]

I don't understand your question, "Huh?" Can you rephrase that? I used the term ecosystem, which includes all aspects of an old growth landscape, both spatial and temporal. This includes the entire life cycle of vegetation within an old growth ecosystem such as lodgepole pine after a fire, and whatever changes the landscape after it's reached climax stage, whether it be fire again, or another species. This is what you described, and we've all seen and have observed forests in various stages of life and death. Young trees, old trees, meadows, etc. are all part of the entire old growth forest ecosystem.

[Mississippiwaffle]