Thousands weigh in on Yellowstone grizzly delisting

Thousands wrote in on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan for removing Endangered Species Act protections from the Yellowstone ecosystem’s grizzly bears before a deadline Tuesday. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 5,400 comments had been submitted to the agency online. USFWS spokeswoman Serena Baker said officials will sort and review the comments in the coming months. Some of them will be addressed in the final delisting proposal. The USFWS hopes to have a final proposal out by the end of the year. Delisting the bear would transfer management responsibility to the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho and allow some discretionary killing of bears. All three states have expressed interest in having hunting seasons on the bears, and USFWS is requiring that they submit plans for state management to be included in the final proposal...more