Biden Administration to Continue Protecting Grizzly Bears in the Rocky Mountains

The Biden administration has decided to maintain protections for approximately 2,000 grizzly bears across four Rocky Mountain states, despite opposition from Republican-led states, according to U.S. wildlife officials. The decision, which was shared with the Associated Press ahead of a public announcement, will continue to shield these bears under the Endangered Species Act.

However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will reclassify the grizzly bear’s status, allowing ranchers to shoot bears if they threaten livestock. Additionally, the administration will lift protections for grizzly populations in states where they are no longer found, including California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Since 1975, grizzly bears have been listed as a threatened species in the lower 48 states. Previous efforts during the Trump administration to remove those protections were blocked by the courts.

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Republican officials in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming have advocated for state management of grizzly populations since 2021. Their petition sought to allow public hunts, though state officials assured that these hunts would not endanger the bears’ overall population. Federal officials have expressed their intention to end the protections eventually, though they did not provide a specific timeline.

Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, explained that this reclassification is part of an effort to support the grizzly bear’s recovery and eventual delisting.

The decision, however, faced criticism, particularly from Idaho Governor Brad Little, who argued that grizzlies have already exceeded recovery criteria and should be delisted. He stated that the USFWS’s ruling ignored science and the successful conservation efforts of stakeholders involved in grizzly recovery.

The grizzly bear population in Idaho and Montana is concentrated in areas such as the Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak mountain ranges, where an estimated 35-40 bears live. While grizzlies have thrived in certain regions, their range has expanded, leading to more human-bear conflicts, particularly around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. The expansion has resulted in occasional attacks on livestock and, rarely, humans.

While some states have pushed to lift protections, scientists and wildlife advocates argue that continued federal safeguards are vital. Chris Servheen, former Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly recovery coordinator, emphasized that lifting protections would undermine decades of conservation efforts and place the bears at risk of extinction again due to climate change and hostile state policies.

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Grizzly bears once roamed much of the western U.S., but by 1975, their numbers dwindled to fewer than 1,000 in the lower 48 states due to overhunting and habitat loss. Recent studies and conservation efforts have led to an estimated population of 2,000 grizzly bears in states like Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, and scientists have indicated that the bears are biologically recovering in those areas.

Opponents of the federal decision, such as Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, criticized the Biden administration for what they viewed as a politically motivated move, aimed at appeasing environmentalists. Zinke, who had previously worked to lift grizzly protections during the Trump administration, argued that the decision was a political move rather than a scientific one.

Despite these criticisms, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s stance is that federal protections are still necessary to ensure the long-term survival of the grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.