BNSF applies for grizzly bear ‘take’ permit
Associated Press
KALISPELL (AP) – Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is applying for an “incidental take permit” under the Endangered Species Act to legalize the grizzly bear deaths its trains cause along the southern edge of Glacier National Park.
Three public meetings are scheduled in the area next week to begin the application process – in Kalispell on Tuesday, in Essex on Wednesday and in Browning on Thursday. All the meetings will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The railroad has participated in a program with individuals and groups in the area for the past 10 years to reduce the number of grizzly deaths.
The permit would require the railroad to develop a habitat conservation plan – much like what it has already done – to minimize the number of deaths, said Tim Bodurtha, FWS coordinator in Montana for habitat conservation.
“Under the Endangered Species Act if a private landowner or individual or organization is conducting legal activities but does impact an endangered species, they need to get a permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct those activities legally, because under the Endangered Species Act it’s illegal to take an endangered species,” Bodurtha said.
Bodurtha said BNSF approached the FWS about the plan. BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas, in Seattle, said FWS asked the railroad to work on it.
Neither Bodurtha nor Melonas could say why the railroad has applied for the permit now, since the requirement has been in effect for years.
The railroad would not have to increase its mitigation efforts or compensation under the permit, Bodurtha said. The benefit of the permit to the railroad is that it would bring the railroad into compliance with the law, he said. The permit period would be 25 years.
Melonas said the railroad’s efforts have included such steps as erecting electric fences, installing noise devices near trestles, speeding cleanup of spilled grain that attracts bears, and educating train crews and the public about grizzlies.
The habitat conservation plan would merely be an extension of the existing program, he said.
“There has been a spate of grizzly bears recently hit by trains, and we’re hoping this particular ecosystem, the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem., is well on the way to recovery of bears in the area,” Bodurtha said. “We need to address all the potential threats.”
The permit would cover an 85-mile stretch of the Middle Fork of the Flathead River corridor along the southern edge of Glacier National Park.
Bodurtha said three grizzlies were killed along the corridor in 2003, and trains have killed about 35 grizzlies there in the past 20 years.
