Governor Little calls for Grizzlies to be de-listed

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Idaho Governor Brad Little submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove grizzly bears in the “Lower 48” United States from the Endangered Species Act and recognize states’ successful efforts to recover and manage grizzly populations.

Officials say delisting is an important, and long overdue, recognition of the major roles Idaho and its neighboring states Montana, Wyoming and Washington have played in grizzly bear recovery by growing the population from a few hundred bears in 1975 to currently over 2,000 bears across four states. Grizzlies in the U.S. and Canada now number around 60,000 bears.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 1993 grizzly bear recovery plan for the Lower 48 outlined a phased strategy that allowed individual populations to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act as each met recovery goals while work continued on other populations. Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Area have met federal recovery criteria for two decades, since 2002.

However, a combination of court cases and federal administrative changes to delisting procedures have tied the process in knots and have continued to move the delisting goal line. Recent court decisions have led Idaho to conclude that how the bears were listed nationwide back in 1975 is now standing in the way of sensible conservation and delisting.

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