“In response to the successful recovery of one of the nation’s most iconic animals, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to remove the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the Federal Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife”, it said. “We’ve done that because of several decades of hard work, like with the grizzly bear”. The bears were originally placed under protection in part because they were reduced to about 2% of their former range south of Canada.
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There is no estimate for how many bears roam outside the park’s 19,300-square-mile zone, but as the population increases, so have the number of interactions with humans – some of them fatal.
If threatened-species protections are lifted, management of the Yellowstone grizzlies would shift from federal to state-level in a joint effort between Idaho, Wyoming and Montana-based wildlife agencies.
On Thursday, Tim Preso, a lawyer with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, which led the earlier challenge, said in an interview that the firm was still reviewing the new plan but that it appeared to raise numerous same questions that existed a decade ago. “That is why it is so important that we turn over management of the species to state authorities”.
This proposed delisting only impacts the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear population. The courts ruled the federal agency hadn’t fully considered the impact of the loss of whitebark pine on the region’s grizzlies.
Since 1975, the number of grizzlies in the three-state Yellowstone region increased from 136 to an estimated 700 to 1,000 animals.
Hunting within Yellowstone National Park would still be prohibited. Put plainly, while distinct populations may be listed individually, entire species can not be divided into different groups and delisted after the fact.
The Fish and Wildlife Service submitted a recovery plan for Yellowstone grizzlies in 1982 and revised it in 1993, 2007 and 2013.
Delisting the grizzly will not happen without a fight however. It must also require coordinated management among Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming that maintains a healthy, stable population.
The FWS said it will soon release an outline of the proposal to the Federal Register for comment, along with two other documents – including a strategy to continue protection efforts after the bear’s removal from the endangered and threatened list.
“Bears have more than doubled their range since the mid 1970’s. And this long term study basically said that there was no impact.you know there’s enough diversity they don’t need to move the grizzly bears from the Bob Marshall and back and forth”.
A final decision on the proposal is due within a year, following a 60 day public comment period, and scientific peer review of the proposal. Being on the Federal Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife accorded special protection to the bears, reported CNN.
Environmentalists argue that those declines are good reasons to keep protecting the region’s grizzlies.
“The recovery of Yellowstone grizzlies is a true American conservation success story and the proposal to “delist” is the appropriate next step in the evolution of their restoration”. The bears have been protected by the Endangered Species Act, which was approved in 1973 and allows for punishment of actions that endanger animals that are covered.
Although there is no exact timeline for a Yellowstone grizzly bear delisting decision, as noted in the Gazette, it could come sooner depending on how state agencies rule.
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“The job of the Endangered Species Act to avert the threat of extinction and to achieve recovery is done”, Ashe said.
