Montana lawmakers consider bill declaring grizzly bears 'recovered'

A Montana Senate committee heard a proposal Tuesday to change state policy to say the grizzly bear population has recovered and to allow trapping and killing the animal to prevent conflicts with people and livestock. Grizzly bears from the Yellowstone National Park region north to the Canadian border are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, giving them federal protections that Montana is trying to undo in a case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Republican Sen. Debby Barrett, the sponsor of Senate Bill 143, said the change in state policy is necessary because the grizzly population is growing and leading to more bear kills of cattle, sheep and big game. When the grizzly is removed from the threatened species list, the policy will be in place to prevent such conflicts, she said. "Whenever this bear is delisted, this is how we manage them," Barrett told the committee. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officials said the grizzly bears should be managed by the state for the conservation of the species. But, said FWP attorney Bob Lane, the provision in the bill that calls for killing and trapping bears as pre-emptive management measures to avoid conflict could cause problems in the state's federal appeal. Opponents could use the language in the bill to say Montana does not have the adequate regulatory mechanisms to manage the animal, and therefore the bear should not be removed from the list of threatened species, Lane said...more