I read with great disappointment a New York Times op-ed (Rinella: The Problem with Protecting Grizzly Bears), which presented a cherry-picked account for why Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections should be removed for Yellowstone’s grizzly bears.

Mr. Rinella offered some facts while ignoring many others, all the while floating the long-held, yet antiquated notion that hunters make the best conservationists. This outdated mode of thinking implies that it wouldn’t be feasible or even conceivable to manage a species for the sake of its own population and without the long-term goal of hunting it. Continue reading →