The Biden administration took a primary step Friday toward ending federal protections for grizzly bears within the northern Rocky Mountains, which might open the door to future hunting in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said state officials provided “substantial” information that grizzlies have recovered from the specter of extinction within the regions surrounding Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.
But federal officials rejected claims by Idaho that protections must be lifted beyond those areas, and so they raised concerns about latest laws from the Republican-led states that would potentially harm grizzly populations.
“We’ll fully evaluate these and other potential threats,” said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Williams told the top of Montana’s wildlife agency in a Wednesday letter that a law allowing grizzlies to be killed in the event that they attack livestock was inconsistent with the state’s commitment to bear conservation. She said the 2023 legislative session offered a “good opportunity” to handle such problems.
Friday’s move kicks off a minimum of a 12 months of further study before final decisions concerning the Yellowstone and Glacier regions.
The states want protections lifted in order that they can regain management of grizzlies and offer hunts to the general public. As grizzly populations have expanded, more of the animals have moved into areas occupied by people, creating public questions of safety and problems for farmers.
State officials have insisted future hunts could be limited and never endanger the general population.
After grizzlies temporarily lost their protections within the Yellowstone region several years ago, Wyoming and Idaho scheduled hunts that will have allowed fewer than two dozen bears to be killed within the initial hunting season.
In Wyoming, almost 1,500 people applied for 12 grizzly bear licenses in 2018 before the hunt was blocked in federal court. A few third of the applicants got here from out of state. Idaho issued only one grizzly license before the hunt was blocked.
Republican lawmakers within the region in recent times also adopted more aggressive policies against gray wolves, including loosened trapping rules that may lead to grizzlies being inadvertently killed.
As many as 50,000 grizzlies once roamed the western half of the U.S. They were exterminated in many of the country early last century by overhunting and trapping, and the last hunts within the northern Rockies occurred many years ago. There at the moment are greater than 2,000 bears within the Lower 48 states and far larger populations in Alaska, where hunting is allowed.
The species’ expansion within the Glacier and Yellowstone areas has led to conflicts between humans and bears, including periodic attacks on livestock and sometimes the fatal mauling of humans.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte welcomed the administration’s announcement and said it may lead to the state reclaiming management of a species placed under federal protection in 1975. He said the grizzly’s recovery “represents a conservation success.”
Montana held grizzly hunts until 1991 under an exemption to the federal protections that allowed 14 bears to be killed each fall.
The federal government in 2017 sought to remove protections for the Yellowstone ecosystem’s grizzlies under former President Donald Trump. The hunts in Wyoming and Idaho were set to start when a judge restored protections, siding with environmental groups that said delisting wasn’t based on sound science.
Those groups want federal protections kept in place and no hunting allowed so bears can proceed moving into latest areas.
“We should always not be able to trust the states,” said attorney Andrea Zaccardi, of the Center for Biological Diversity. Derek Goldman with the Endangered Species Coalition said state management could be a disaster and was glad federal agencies were taking a look at the states’ laws.
Dave Evans, a hunting guide with Wood River Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming, said the problem is complex, and he can understand why people fall on either side of the controversy.
“You’ve got so many opinions and a few of them are usually not based on science, however the biologists are those that know the facts about what the populations are and what must be considered a goal for every area,” Evans said. “If you happen to’re going to administer grizzly bears, there’s a sustainable number that should be kept in balance. I’m not a biologist, but I might follow the science.”
U.S. government scientists have said the region’s grizzlies are biologically recovered but in 2021 decided that protections were still needed due to human-caused bear deaths and other pressures. Bears considered problematic are usually killed by wildlife officials.
Demand for bear hunting licenses would likely be high if the protections are lifted, Evans said.
“You’d definitely have the next demand, and it could probably be very expensive,” Evans said. “A guided bear hunt in Alaska can start around $20,000, so I might imagine it could be very wanted.”
A choice on the states’ petitions was long overdue. Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Thursday filed notice that he intended to sue over the delay. Idaho’s petition was broader than those filed by Montana and sought to lift protections nationwide.
That might have included small populations of bears in portions of Idaho, Montana and Washington state, where biologists say the animals haven’t yet recovered to sustainable levels. It also could have prevented the return of bears to other areas corresponding to the North Cascades region.
“While we proceed to guage the choice from USFWS, that is one other example of federal overreach and appears to have a disproportionate impact on North Idaho,” Little said in an emailed statement. He said his office would “proceed to ward off against the federal government.”
Grizzly bear encounters are generally rare in northern Idaho, though wildlife managers occasionally warn people to be on the watch for the animals. In 2021, Idaho Fish and Game officials estimated there have been between 40 and 50 grizzly bears within the northernmost a part of the state.
