EXPERTS FORESEE GRIZZLIES, WOLVES IN UTAH.

Byline: Tom Wharton and Jim Woolf The Salt Lake Tribune

When Dick Carter dreams about the High Uintas Wilderness Area, he hears wolves and imagines grizzly bears feeding on berries in an alpine meadow.

``I'd like to sit somewhere below Kings Peak and hear a pack of wolves howl off in the distance,'' says the founder of the new High Uintas Preservation Council. ``I'd like to sit in the middle of the trail where a grizzly has walked past and see a footprint. That's when you understand what wild is and what tame is.''

Though the idea might seem absurd to hikers accustomed to being the most dangerous animal on the trail, a growing group of wildlife biologists, ecologists and environmentalists is broaching the possibility of bringing back wolves and grizzly bears to the 460,000-acre High Uintas wilderness - Utah's largest block of roadless land.

Wolves and grizzly bears are protected by the Endangered Species Act, and they cannot be moved without extensive studies and numerous public hearings. No one has asked for this process to be started, says Reed Harris, Utah field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Still, experts say, these animals could move into Utah on their own, bypassing the lengthy federal decision-making process.

Wolves in Yellowstone National Park almost are certain to move south as their population continues to grow. Young wolves tend to strike out on their own, traveling as much as 500 miles in search of a mate and new terrain. That puts northern Utah well within the range of Yellowstone's wolves.

``I doubt there are wolves in Utah today, but if a wolf showed up tomorrow it wouldn't surprise me,'' says Robert Schmidt, a researcher at Utah State University who is encouraging Utahans to develop a strategy for dealing with the animals before the wolves arrive.

Most experts believe it will be years - maybe decades - before two wolves meet in Utah and decide to begin their own pack. It could happen in the Uintas or any other area with a healthy population of the deer and elk on which they feed.

Even if a few grizzlies make it to Utah - either on their own or with help - many wildlife biologists question whether enough wild land remains to support a self-sustaining population of these giant bears.

Grizzlies disappeared from Utah more than 70 years ago because of a lack of habitat and the growing human population, says Boyde Blackwell, a biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

Utah's last known grizzly bear, named Old Ephraim, was killed by sheepherder Frank Clark on Aug. 22, 1923, in the forest north of Logan. Its skull is preserved at the Smithsonian Institution.

``There is far less habitat for them now than there was when Old Ephraim was killed,'' Blackwell notes.

Advocates contend there would be enough land for grizzlies if natural ecosystems in the Uintas along with the Bear River Range to the northwest and the Book Cliffs to the south were protected and restored. In addition to benefiting wildlife, this would restore vital watersheds, improve range conditions and result in healthier forests, says University of Utah economics instructor Michael Garrity.

Utah wildlife officials concede they have no plan to deal with wolves or grizzlies that show up unannounced.

``The subject has been broached a few times, but not in a serious conversation,'' says Wes Shields, wildlife supervisor for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. He assumes that management ideas would be sought from the public and the Utah Wildlife Board, and then ``we would recommend something.''

Dave Blackner, a Salt Lake City Boy Scout leader, has mixed emotions about sharing a Uinta mountain campsite with a 300-pound grizzly bear.

On one hand, the idea of a big, wild predator in the area fascinates him. ``A Scout should certainly learn fear and respect for the wild.''

But he worries about the possibility that one of his young charges could be mauled or killed by a bear. ``It seems crazy to introduce that danger if it has been taken out naturally.''

Willard Hansen, director of development for the Utah Boy Scout Council, jokes that most backcountry Scout troops make so much noise that the average bear would give them a wide berth.

Tom Bingham of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation agrees it is ``just a matter of time'' before wolves arrive in Utah, but says his group would ``vigorously oppose'' any attempts to encourage the establishment of wolves or grizzlies. He worries about the danger to humans and livestock.

USU's Schmidt says a lengthy series of public-opinion surveys done by him and graduate student Kristen P. La Vine found that Utahans generally have favorable attitudes toward wolves.

Almost 52 percent said they either like or strongly like wolves, while 17 percent said they dislike or strongly dislike them. The rest were neutral. And their survey found the vast majority were willing to manage the wolf populations to minimize conflicts with humans.

Schmidt encourages ranchers, hunters, hikers and others to negotiate a management plan for wolves. It will be easier to do it now than in the politically charged period after the first pack is discovered, he says.

Barrie Gilbert, a USU bear biologist, fears that critics will adopt a ``paranoid view'' that environmentalists are using wolves and grizzlies as another tool to stymie development of public lands. The real goal, he says, is restoration of ``biological diversity'' in this mostly wild area.

Carter agrees. ``I think of the Uintas as a songbird wilderness,'' he says. ``The big predators are largely lacking. Even cougar and black bear have been severely punished in that area. The wolverine is probably gone. The lynx is probably gone. Grizzly bears and wolves are missing. It makes for less of a wild experience.''

Montana bear expert Doug Peacock likes the idea of allowing grizzlies to move into the Uintas on their own. He does not like the way wolves were transplanted from their Canadian homes into Yellowstone. And he is not sure that grizzly bears should be artificially reintroduced anywhere, including the Uintas, by well-meaning biologists.

``The only problem with reintroduction - and this is a big problem - is that there is no place on Earth that has too many bears,'' Peacock says. ``It is not ethical to take a wild, adapted grizzly out of the wild and move it into a new area.''

If left to their own devices, Peacock believes, grizzlies eventually would work their way south from Yellowstone into Wyoming's Wind River Range, and then south along the Green River to Utah.

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Photo: Dick Carter

Seeks to share trails with beasts