Groups challenge grizzly’s delisting

BILLINGS – Conservation groups on Tuesday challenged the federal government’s plan to remove Yellowstone-area grizzly bears from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the removal of the grizzlies from the list of “threatened” animals effective April 30, capping what officials described as a successful three-decade effort to recover the animal from near-extinction.

The change would remove some federal protections and open the door to future public hunting of grizzlies for the first time in decades.

On Tuesday, eight groups notified the department that they intend to file a lawsuit in 60 days if the delisting is not reversed. The groups argue the 500 bears now living in and around Yellowstone National Park are too few to guarantee long-term survival of the population in the face of global warming, habitat loss and other pressures.

“There is no shortage of things wrong with this,” said Bozeman attorney Douglas Honnold with Earthjustice, which is representing the groups.

Honnold pointed to a recent decline in whitebark pine trees – a staple of the grizzly’s pre-hibernation diet – as a threat to the bears.

Fish and Wildlife regional director Mitch King said he had not yet seen the conservation groups’ notice, but he defended his agency’s action as appropriate.

“I don’t think the world’s perfect, but we’ve done just about everything humanly possible to make sure grizzly bear populations remain stable in and around Yellowstone,” he said.

King said the department would continue monitoring grizzly bears in cooperation with state agencies.

An estimated 136 to 312 bears remained in the Yellowstone area when they were listed as threatened in 1975.

The conservation groups filing the notice of intent to sue the USFWS Tuesday were the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Humane Society of the United States, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watershed Project, Great Bear Foundation and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.