Back to Stories50 Years: How the Endangered Species Act Influenced Greater Yellowstone
Bison restoration in GYE began in the early 1900s with breeding at the Lamar Bison Ranch, and by 1954 some 1,300 bison inhabited the park, NPS reports. Bison began expanding their range as populations increased, creating concern over the risk of spreading diseases to livestock on private lands adjacent to the park. As a result of decades of disagreement between Montana and NPS, bison are managed by the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Roughly 20,500 plains bison are now in conservation herds across North America, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, a quarter of which call Yellowstone home. Despite recovery numbers, various groups have petitioned for Yellowstone bison to be listed under the ESA to ensure federal protection.
January 2, 2024
50 Years: How the Endangered Species Act Influenced Greater YellowstoneTo celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ESA, MoJo looks at the landmark legislation’s impact on Greater Yellowstone’s keystone species
With a wingspan of up to eight feet, bald eagles are a massive raptor and have been the national emblem of America since 1782. In 1963, only 417 nesting pairs existed in the U.S. They began recovering in the 1970s after DDT was banned and they were listed under the Endangered Species Act. Photo by Scott Heidorn/NPS
by Julia Barton
Imagine Yellowstone National Park without iconic wildlife like grizzly
bears, gray wolves, bald eagles or bison. Fifty years ago, that was the
trajectory of the park—and the rest of the Lower 48.
When the Endangered Species Act was enacted on December 28, 1973, grizzlies
had been eliminated from 98 percent of their historic range in the contiguous
U.S., no wolf packs lived in Yellowstone, and just a few hundred bald eagles
remained south of the Canadian border. Now, each of these species has thriving
populations across Greater Yellowstone.
The Endangered Species Act passed with bipartisan support to establish
federal protections for declining species of fish, wildlife and plants. The act
was designed with the dual purpose of protecting animals and conserving the
ecosystems they rely on, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The Endangered Species Act has a 99 percent success rate in protecting its listed species from extinction, and currently extends protections across more than 1,600 species.
The ESA, most recently amended in 2003, was the end-result of various
attempts at wildlife conservation. Among the law’s precursors was the Lacey Act of 1894, a law intended to specifically protect Yellowstone
National Park’s wildlife and plants from illegal harvest, that was later
enacted nationwide.
The Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 and Endangered Species
Conservation Act of 1969 heralded the need for a more broad-reaching piece of
legislation, thus setting the stage for the ESA.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the ESA has a 99
percent success rate in protecting its listed species from extinction, and
currently extends protections across more than 1,600 species. Among the act’s success stories are a trio of
iconic animals that form the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem we know today.
GRIZZLY BEAR
Grizzlies have been listed under the ESA in the Lower 48 since 1975.
Prior to European settlement in the 1800s, an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears
were widely distributed across the West. The bruins posed threats to livestock
and human expansion, and, per government-funded bounty programs, were killed
wherever they were found, reads to the species’ ESA listing page. By the time of their listing, just 700-800
grizzlies remained in the contiguous U.S. where they were largely confined to
federal lands in Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Grizzlies were listed as endangered in 1975. Today, they face delisting which would transfer management from the federal government to states. Photo by Jim Peaco/NPS
A grizzly bear recovery program was approved in 1993 outlining recovery
efforts across six zones, including the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Population numbers now hover around 2,000 individuals, according to a 2022 Fish and Wildlife Service population report, and bears are reinhabiting areas they haven’t
existed in for more than a century.
Following a successful recovery, grizzlies in the Northern Continental
Divide and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems now face potential delisting from the ESA, which would transfer management from federal to state
agencies. In February 2023, the Fish and Wildlife Service released findings prompted by three petitions to delist the bruins, suggesting substantial
evidence for delisting in NCDE and GYE. The Service is currently preparing a
status review for grizzly bears in these two ecosystems to determine their
future listing status.
GRAY WOLF
An adaptive species whose range once spanned two-thirds of all U.S.
states, the gray wolf was added to the endangered species list in 1978. Much like grizzlies, the predators were nearly eradicated as
settlers expanded west. By the 1970s, extensive research found no evidence of
wolves established inside Yellowstone National Park. Following the species’
listing, Congress established plans to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone and
from 1995-1997, a total of 41 wolves from Canada and northwestern Montana were
relocated into the park.
The wolves quickly and successfully established a population in the
region and as of January 2023, Yellowstone documented at least 108 wolves
distributed between 10 packs inside the park. Currently, wolves are no longer
listed in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, although they remain listed in other
states.
BALD EAGLE
As many as 100,000 bald eagles nested in the Lower 48 prior to European
settlement. The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States
since 1782, though it faced near extinction in the contiguous U.S. by the
mid-1900s due to shooting, food contamination and habitat loss. By 1963, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported just 417 nesting pairs.
Federal agencies tried multiple times to protect the bald eagle,
including through legislation in 1940 and 1967. But it wasn’t until the 1972 banning
of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a harmful insecticide commonly known as DDT,
along with the species’ ESA listing in 1978, that populations truly started to
rebound. Through captive breeding programs, habitat restoration and nest-site
protection, bald eagles were delisted in 2007. In a 2020 population study, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated
316,700 individuals in the Lower 48. Eagles in Yellowstone are part of the
Rocky Mountain breeding population which extends into Montana and Idaho, and in
2022 the National Park Service reported 28 bald eagle territories inside
Yellowstone National Park.
AMERICAN BISON
Tens of millions of bison once roamed the continent, and the iconic mammals
were crucial to indigenous tribes. As settlers moved West during the 1800s, the
U.S. Army began forcibly removing Native Americans from their ancestral lands
and, as a part of such campaigns, hundreds of thousands of bison were killed by
U.S. troops and market hunters throughout the century. By 1880, just a few
dozen bison remained in Yellowstone, according to the Park Service.
Bison restoration in GYE began in the early 1900s with breeding at the Lamar Bison Ranch, and by 1954 some 1,300 bison inhabited the park, NPS reports. Bison began expanding their range as populations increased, creating concern over the risk of spreading diseases to livestock on private lands adjacent to the park. As a result of decades of disagreement between Montana and NPS, bison are managed by the Interagency Bison Management Plan. Roughly 20,500 plains bison are now in conservation herds across North America, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, a quarter of which call Yellowstone home. Despite recovery numbers, various groups have petitioned for Yellowstone bison to be listed under the ESA to ensure federal protection.
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