A grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. (Photo by Frank van Manen / USGS / Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 / Unedited)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday reaffirmed the protected status of grizzly bears on the Endangered Species List, rejecting petitions from Montana and Wyoming officials to delist the species in specific recovery zones.
In a 171-page document released Jan. 8, FWS responded to the states, rejecting attempts to move the species under state management. Instead, the agency proposed managing grizzlies as a single population across Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington, as well as revisions of protective regulations for the species.
“This reclassification will facilitate recovery of grizzly bears and provide a stronger foundation for eventual delisting,” Martha Williams, a Montana resident and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director, said in a press release. “And the proposed changes to our … rule will provide management agencies and landowners more tools and flexibility to deal with human/bear conflicts, an essential part of grizzly bear recovery.”