Western Watersheds Project Files Suit Against Livestock-Related Grizzly Killings

WWP and our allies filed a lawsuit yesterday against the authorized killing of 72 grizzly bears to protect livestock on 170,000 acres of public lands in the Upper Green River area of Wyoming. The 2019 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bridger-Teton National Forest to authorize livestock grazing in prime grizzly habitat in the Yellowstone ecosystem requires next to nothing from the livestock operators, but instead permitted dozens of protected grizzlies to be killed for preying on cattle in grizzly habitat. There are only an estimated 718 bears in the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Upper Green project poses a direct threat to species' survival. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service required only weak and highly discretionary conservation measures meant to prevent livestock conflict with grizzlies. One of these measures -- directing ranchers to drag dead cattle at least 0.5 mile into the backcountry and leave them there -- makes grizzly-cattle conflicts worse by habituating bears to the taste of beef. These conflicts have been increasing as the grizzlies' sources of whitebark pine nuts have decreased due to climate-driven beetle infestations. An alternative food source – army cutworm moth concentrations – aren't available in this area, leaving hungry bears with fewer options for sustenance. The Biological Opinion allows 72 bears to be killed over ten years, even though Yellowstone grizzlies are supposed to be protected as a ’ threatened species’ under the Endangered Species Act. There also is no limit on the number of female bears among this kill total. Female bears are critical to the survival and recovery of the species and allowing unlimited "take" of these mother bears violates scientific bear management principles. Though less well-known, the endangered Kendall Warm Springs dace also is included in our lawsuit. This tiny fish is found only in Kendall Warm Springs, a 328-yard-long tributary to the Green River warmed to a constant temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit by numerous thermal seeps. The 2019 Upper Green livestock plan allows livestock into the existing exclosure, which was built to exclude cattle for the protection of the species. Livestock use degrades riparian channels, potentially changing the temperature and the habitat for this highly-specific fish...MORE