Federal decision could alter grizzly bear protections nationwide

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is set to make a decision on the protective status of grizzly bears in the next six months but it is unclear how sweeping it may be.

A declaration by a high ranking agency official in a federal lawsuit and a settlement between Idaho and the federal government indicate the agency plans to either revise the current listing of grizzly bears or begin rulemaking to remove them from Endangered-Species-Act protections altogether by Jan. 31.

The move will include a tangle of separate but related ESA decisions about grizzlies in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

The federal government is reviewing petitions by Wyoming and Montana asking that grizzlies, listed as a threatened species, be stripped of federal protection in specific geographic areas. The Wyoming petition pertains to bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem — an area around Yellowstone National Park that is predominantly in the Cowboy State but also includes parts of Montana and Idaho. The Montana petition relates to grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem — a vast area in and around Glacier National Park.

The federal agency rejected a petition from Idaho that asked it to strip grizzlies of ESA protections across the entire Lower 48 States. But Idaho sued and in a settlement agreement last winter, the federal agency said it would consider both a full, nation-wide delisting of grizzly bears and a presumably narrower revision to the current listing.

Idaho argues that grizzly bears are fully recovered and federal protections should be dropped. But the state also contends the Fish and Wildlife Service made a critical error when it listed grizzly bears as endangered in 1975. In that process, the federal government protected grizzlies across the entire Lower 48 states. Idaho says that violates ESA rules and the bears should have been listed in much narrower geographic areas known as distinct population segments.

“Idaho and neighboring states have worked for more than 40 years in a broad-based effort to support and sustain healthy and reasonable grizzly populations in our states, but legal and bureaucratic gridlock has kept robust populations of grizzly bears unnecessarily under ESA protection. The settlement provides a path to escape regulations that are not necessary in Idaho,” Gov. Brad Little said in a news release last winter.

It is possible the January decision will begin the process to remove ESA protections for grizzlies in and around Glacier and Yellowstone national parks as Wyoming and Montana have requested. When it comes to Idaho, the agency could grant the state’s request by working on a rule to delist grizzlies not just near Glacier and Yellowstone but across the entire country. It could also choose to write a rule that would fix the geographic listing error that Idaho pointed out by describing where in the Lower 48 States grizzlies will remain protected.

Adam Rissien, of the group WildEarth Guardians, said the refusal by the service to give any hint of which way it may go is unnerving for conservation groups that have worked to protect the bears. He said it would be indefensible to delist grizzly bears everywhere, or even throughout Idaho but the phrasing in various court documents makes it a possibility.

“I would anticipate maybe a complete overhaul of how the service is approaching grizzly bear recovery in the Lower 48 States and that overhaul is deeply concerning,” he said.

A spokesperson for the federal agency declined to define the scope of the decision other than to say all three aspects of it are interrelated.

“To ensure consistency between these decisions, the Service currently intends to finalize all three of these documents — the (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) 12-month finding, the (Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem) 12-month finding, and the proposed rule revising or removing the entire ESA listing of grizzly bears in the lower-48 states — simultaneously,” Joe Szuszwalak said in an emailed response to questions from the Tribune.

Idaho has as many as 200 grizzly bears, far fewer than Montana and Wyoming that each have about 1,000 grizzlies. Idaho’s bears are found in three areas — the Selkirk Mountains near the U.S.-Canada border; the Cabinet Mountains northwest of Sandpoint; and in the Island Park area west of Yellowstone National Park near the state’s border with Wyoming.

The state’s Bitterroot Ecosystem that has been identified as suitable for grizzlies does not have an established population but the bears occasionally pass through the area that includes the Selway-Bitterroot and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Areas.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.