Feds Say Silver Mine Is Good for Grizzly Bears

[douglas9]

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - Grizzly bears in Montana's Cabinet Mountains Wilderness will fare better if the region gets a new copper and silver mine, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed in a hearing before the 9th Circuit.
The Rock Creek Alliance and other environmental and conservation groups are appealing the agency's determination that mitigation will ensure that the mine does not harm grizzly bears or endangered bull trout in the Cabinet Mountains. A federal judge in Montana had rejected claims that the biological opinion was not arbitrary or capricious.
At a hearing Thursday before a three-judge appellate panel, Department of Justice attorney Robert Oakley said mitigation efforts would reduce human and bear interactions, a factor he says environmentalists label as the leading cause of bear mortality in wilderness area.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/07/20/38294.htm