Feds to explore delisting of Greater Yellowstone and NCDE grizzlies

 

Gov. Greg Gianforte celebrated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s initial finding while environmentalists cast doubt on the state’s ability to manage the Montana state animal.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday that it is exploring whether grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems are sufficiently recovered to no longer be considered as an endangered species.

The agency’s announcement was welcomed by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and other Republican officials, who’ve long sought to restore management of grizzly bears to state agencies. Environmental and conservation groups expressed wariness at the development, questioning whether state management would sustain a healthy, stable population of grizzlies and arguing that the USFWS is not meeting the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. 

The agency’s decision was initiated by a trio of delisting petitions submitted to the federal government in recent years, including a 2021 petition the state of Montana filed under Gov. Greg Gianforte’s leadership. The USFWS said two of those petitions presented “substantial information” that NCDE and Yellowstone grizzlies “may qualify as distinct population segments and warrant removal from the federal government’s list of endangered and threatened species.” 

A third petition, seeking the delisting of grizzlies across the Lower 48, did not present “substantial, credible information to warrant further action,” the agency said...more