Lawmakers on Thursday killed a that could have allowed grizzly bears to one day return to California.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee spiked Inglewood Democratic Sen. Laura Richardson鈥檚 . The measure would have tasked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with creating a 鈥渞oadmap that evaluates whether, and under what conditions, reintroduction of the grizzly bear is feasible and advisable.鈥�
As is typical with the Legislature鈥檚 appropriations committees, lawmakers didn鈥檛 discuss the bill; nor did they take public testimony before the committee鈥檚 chairperson, Democratic Assemblymember of Oakland, announced the decision.
Wicks later told reporters that before intentionally reintroducing grizzly bears, the state must figure out how humans can best coexist with predatory wildlife. She pointed to the controversial return of gray wolves to California and the subsequent loss of cattle.
鈥淭he state needs to really invest in how we are actually addressing and dealing with those conflicts,鈥� she said.
Grizzlies once lived across most of California. As many as 10,000 may have roamed before the Gold Rush. They were so prevalent that when California settlers tried to form their own nation, they called it the Bear Flag Republic. A grizzly bear is memorialized on California鈥檚 flag.
Settlers systematically exterminated the animals. They were gone by the 1920s, leaving the smaller black bear as California鈥檚 only surviving native bear species.
Two Native American tribes cosponsored the bill, and several animal welfare and environmental groups supported it. They argued that bringing the second largest land predator back to America鈥檚 most populated state would right an ecological wrong and help restore California鈥檚 degraded ecosystem.
Opponents included ranchers, hunting associations and rural communities. They argued California is far too populated with people to sustain another apex predator. Rural communities are already overwhelmed with conflicts with mountain lions, black bears and wolves that attack livestock and wander into their towns, opponents said.
The measure set aside no funding for the study, but it allowed for a future Legislature or an outside group to do so.
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Yue Stella Yu contributed reporting.
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