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Embattled - UPDATE March 19, 2015

Jewel nursing Fern and Herbie - May 25, 2013Jewel nursing Fern and Herbie - May 25, 2013For the last couple days, we have been locked in a defensive mode, which is why there was no update last night. Today, we got a cautious bit of good news. The bill that contains the ban on bear-feeding is not moving in the House. It has been replaced by another bill that is now on the House Floor without any language on bear-feeding. We have Rep. Tom Hackbarth and our Representative David Dill to thank.

Our focus now is on the Senate bill where Senate File 1303 is moving forward with the bear-feeding language included as of 4:30 PM today. The DNR is pushing hard for passage, claiming public safety issues that are not supported by our data or by testimony in the hearing. A driving factor for the DNR’s push may be the fact that the DNR will be in a tough legal position should we win the appeal. They know the bill would shut us down no matter what the outcome of the appeal.

An editorial in the Timberjay newspaper puts it in perspective. http://timberjay.com/detail.html?sub_id=12005

A companion article in the Timberjay includes quotes from Dennis Udovich, President of the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary that could also be hurt with the ban on bear-feeding. http://timberjay.com/detail.html?sub_id=12009

Udovich said that from what he’s seen and heard so far, the legislation seems to be targeted primarily at Lynn Rogers. He backed up our diversionary feeding findings by stating that in years of scarce natural food they see more bears coming for supplemental food at the sanctuary and that the food “helps reduce nuisance bear complaints.”

Lily Fans helped with this. The focus now is on the members of the Senate Committee on Finance listed here http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/committees/committee_bio.php?cmte_id=1007&ls=

Thank you for all you do.

Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


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