Back to StoriesMontana Preps for Potential Grizzly Bear Delisting
September 30, 2024
Montana Preps for Potential Grizzly Bear DelistingState Fish, Wildlife and Parks releases final EIS proposing statewide grizzly management plan
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to make a decision in January 2025 about delisting grizzly bears from protections under the Endangered Species act. Yellowstone grizzly takes a look around in Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Jim Peaco/NPS
by
Sophie Tsairis
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on September 11 released
its final environmental impact statement assessing the potential
impacts of the statewide management of grizzly bears should they be delisted. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to decide in January 2025 whether to
maintain or alter the current Endangered Species Act protections for grizzlies
in the Northern Continental Divide and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems.
The final document analyzes two alternatives: a “no action”
approach, and one that would adopt a statewide grizzly bear management plan. In
the final EIS, FWP recommended the latter. The agency in December 2022 released the draft EIS for two
months of public comment. The timeline was extended 30 days in February 2023 to
“ensure all partner agencies, affected county governments, and tribal agencies
had a chance for review,” according to FWP.
“We’ve been intentionally very thorough in our process and
review of the impacts to the human environment of statewide grizzly bear
management,” FWP Director Dustin Temple said in a statement. “This is a
crucial process step that yet again shows the state and FWP are ready to take
over grizzly bear management ensuring the future viability of grizzlies in
Montana.”
In the proposed alternative, FWP would adopt and implement
the 2024 Statewide Grizzly Bear Management Plan, which would guide grizzly bear
management across Montana. This includes grizzly bears located in recovered
ecosystems, areas not yet recovered, and connecting habitats. In April, Mountain Journal reported on a draft of
the Montana Grizzly Bear
Management Plan.
Dr. Chris Servheen, president and board
chair of Montana Wildlife Federation and former grizzly bear recovery
coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told Mountain Journal
that FWP deserves credit for making some appropriate corrections to the plan,
but that the majority of key issues raised by public comments were
ignored. “This is a lost opportunity for FWP to
do the right thing and demonstrate that they are responsible managers of
delisted grizzly bears,” Servheen said.
Earlier this year, Mountain Journal
published a guest
letter by six wildlife experts, including
Servheen, who agreed that Montana isn’t properly prepared to delist grizzlies.
In an email, Servheen iterated several
concerns with the final EIS statement, including the allowance of hunting in
grizzly bear habitat connectivity areas; the intention to continue permitting wolf
trapping and snaring as well as the use of hounds to hunt black bears in areas
where grizzlies could be present; and insinuating the false notion that hunting
grizzly bears will reduce human-bear conflicts.
“This is a lost opportunity for FWP to do the right thing and demonstrate that they are responsible managers of delisted grizzly bears.” – Dr. Chris Servheen, former grizzly bear recovery coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
In a separate email to the Montana
Fish and Wildlife Commission commenting on Amendments to Administrative Rules
of Montana, Servheen wrote that hunting in and of itself is not an effective
management tool.
“In summary, placing new or enhanced
ways to kill bears into bear habitat such as sport hunting or permits to landowners to
kill bears that are ‘threatening’ livestock or seem ‘threatening’ to some people will not
reduce human-bear conflicts,” he wrote. “Instead, there should be enhanced
efforts to help residents reduce or bear-proof attractants and promote successful coexistence. This will
result in fewer dead bears and will reduce numbers of human-bear conflicts.”
The
final EIS outlines that if grizzlies are delisted, the state plans to delay
hunting for five years following their removal from ESA protections.
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