Conservation group sues over grizzlies in Washington
PORTLAND (AP) - A conservation group has sued the U.S. Forest Service, alleging that the agency's policies in Washington's Colville National Forest are failing to protect grizzly bears.
The federal suit, filed in Portland by the Kettle Range Conservation Group, claims the Forest Service has allowed the grizzly population in the Selkirk Mountain recovery zone to dwindle to fewer than 50 by allowing too much road building and by placing insufficient restrictions on hunting.
The lawsuit also seeks increased protection for woodland caribou in Colville National Forest.
The conservation group has asked the court to declare the Forest Service in violation of the Endangered Species Act and force the agency to further restrict road building, timber harvesting and hunting in the northeast Washington forest.
``It's a hammer to get them to do what they should have been doing all along,'' Kettle Range Executive Director Timothy Coleman said by telephone Monday from his office in Republic, Wash.
A Forest Service spokeswoman in Portland, Patty Burel, said the department was unaware of the lawsuit and declined to comment. She did say the department is tackling the road-building issue on a national basis.
The regional forester in Portland oversees management of the Colville National Forest.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the grizzly bear as a ``threatened'' species in 1975. It has established a goal of at least 90 grizzly bears within the Selkirk Mountains recovery zone, but the current estimate is 30 to 50.
In the last six years, only one female grizzly with cubs has been documented in the Selkirk Mountains area, according to the lawsuit.
Moreover, the lawsuit states, of the 34 known bear deaths between 1982 and 1998, 26 were caused by humans, most resulting from mistaken identity during big game hunting seasons.
Coleman said the Forest Service has not changed its forest management plan in 15 years and the goal of the lawsuit is to get that changed.
``This forces them to at least analyze the situation,'' he said. ``And once they analyze the situation, they will realize something needs to be done.''
The Kettle Range Conservation group has 700 members. | 
