They’re on our flag, but do long-gone grizzly bears belong in modern California?
California Democrats want to study reintroducing grizzlies that vanished 100 years ago, brushing aside ranchers and rural counties who say the predators don’t belong in today’s crowded state.
California’s official animal has been extinct in the state for a century, yet Democrats in Sacramento are pushing forward with legislation to study whether grizzly bears should be brought back to the wild.
The bill, advancing despite loud objections from ranchers, rural residents and every Republican in the Legislature, would fund research into reintroduction rather than declare it official policy. Its supporters frame the move as a symbolic reckoning with the state’s flag, which still bears the image of a grizzly that was last seen in California in the 1920s.
Rural counties that would host any reintroduced population argue the idea is detached from modern realities: growing human populations, fragmented habitat, and working landscapes where livestock graze. They point out that grizzlies are large, territorial predators capable of killing cattle and posing risks to hikers, campers and homeowners in the Sierra foothills and beyond.
The divide highlights a recurring Sacramento pattern: urban lawmakers voting on wildlife policy that falls hardest on inland and mountain communities least represented in the Capitol. Republicans called the study a prelude to federal mandates and lawsuits that could restrict grazing, logging and recreation once bears are reintroduced.
Even the bill’s language acknowledges the complexity. It tasks researchers with weighing biological feasibility against economic costs, public safety data and the attitudes of people who actually live near proposed release sites, details often omitted from the celebratory press releases.
Whether this becomes another symbolic gesture or the first step toward actual bears roaming California again will depend on what those rural voices manage to force into the final report. The flag may still show a grizzly, but the landscape it once ruled has changed beyond recognition.
Original reporting: CalMatters.
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