Federal agencies to urge end of grizzly protection

BILLINGS – The federal government is planning next week to propose removing federal protections for grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, sources told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Tom France, a regional director for the National Wildlife Federation, said an announcement was scheduled Tuesday in Washington, D.C. A spokesman for the Interior Department and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined late Thursday to confirm whether such an announcement was scheduled.

However, a congressional source and a state government source in Wyoming, both who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the announcement.

France said government representatives from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming were scheduled to be on hand, along with the Interior secretary and a member of the National Wildlife Federation.

France said his organization believes steps toward formally removing bears from protection under the Endangered Species Act in that region is long overdue.

Speculation surrounding the government’s release of a so-called “delisting” proposal has spun for months, with some state and federal leaders calling for action.

Federal wildlife officials estimate that more than 600 grizzly bears live in the Yellowstone ecosystem, a remarkable recovery considering that perhaps 200 or 250 grizzlies were in that region in 1975. That’s when grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The bears’ decline in the West early in the last century was due in large part to hunting and loss of habitat. Some environmentalists say adequate protections are still not in place to ensure the bears’ long-term viability in the greater Yellowstone region, if federal protections were to be lifted.

Chris Servheen, Fish and Wildlife’s grizzly bear recovery coordinator, said Thursday that he didn’t know if an announcement was imminent but hoped one was.

Once delisting is proposed, there would be a period of public comment, and it could be months before a final decision was made, he has said.