Montana Preps for Potential Grizzly Bear Delisting

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.

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.