Grizzly Delisting Moving Forward - 04/18/16
WEST YELLOWSTONE — There’s a lot of ground to cover before the federal government can finally decide whether to lift protections on the Yellowstone region grizzly bear — which they’d like to do by the end of the year. And on Thursday, state and federal officials began mapping out how they’ll start covering that ground in the next few months.
The Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee decided at its meeting here Thursday that it wants to review and update the draft conservation strategy for Yellowstone grizzly bears by November, when the next formal meeting is scheduled.
“At our fall meeting, we hope to have a final conservation strategy ready,” said Mary Erickson, supervisor of the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
A final conservation strategy is a necessity for delisting the Yellowstone grizzly. It would detail how the bears will be managed once delisted. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its plans to delist the bears in March.
Grizzly bears have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, when there were fewer than 150 bears in the Yellowstone region. There are more than 700 now.
FWS delisted the Yellowstone region grizzly bears in 2007, but a court challenge from environmental groups forced protections to be restored in 2009.
Pieces of the recent delisting proposal were picked up from the 2007 delisting, including parts of the conservation strategy.
On Wednesday, Chris Servheen, FWS grizzly bear recovery coordinator, said some portions of the strategy would need to be updated to match the other document supporting the removal of protections: the delisting rule.
Specifically, he mentioned portions of the strategy that lined out how discretionary mortality — bears that could be hunted or killed for management reasons — would be allocated to the states.
Other officials questioned other sections of the plan, and those questions are what the Yellowstone subcommittee hopes to have addressed by November so the agencies can sign off on the plan and move to the next step.
That will begin with a group of six people representing state and federal agencies and local governments charged with setting up the committee’s internal review of the strategy.
Over the next month, the group of six will create subgroups to focus on certain areas like habitat, hunting regulations and coordination between governments on nuisance bears.
The Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee decided at its meeting here Thursday that it wants to review and update the draft conservation strategy for Yellowstone grizzly bears by November, when the next formal meeting is scheduled.
“At our fall meeting, we hope to have a final conservation strategy ready,” said Mary Erickson, supervisor of the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
A final conservation strategy is a necessity for delisting the Yellowstone grizzly. It would detail how the bears will be managed once delisted. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its plans to delist the bears in March.
Grizzly bears have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, when there were fewer than 150 bears in the Yellowstone region. There are more than 700 now.
FWS delisted the Yellowstone region grizzly bears in 2007, but a court challenge from environmental groups forced protections to be restored in 2009.
Pieces of the recent delisting proposal were picked up from the 2007 delisting, including parts of the conservation strategy.
On Wednesday, Chris Servheen, FWS grizzly bear recovery coordinator, said some portions of the strategy would need to be updated to match the other document supporting the removal of protections: the delisting rule.
Specifically, he mentioned portions of the strategy that lined out how discretionary mortality — bears that could be hunted or killed for management reasons — would be allocated to the states.
Other officials questioned other sections of the plan, and those questions are what the Yellowstone subcommittee hopes to have addressed by November so the agencies can sign off on the plan and move to the next step.
That will begin with a group of six people representing state and federal agencies and local governments charged with setting up the committee’s internal review of the strategy.
Over the next month, the group of six will create subgroups to focus on certain areas like habitat, hunting regulations and coordination between governments on nuisance bears.
