Tag Archives: Endangered Species List

Feds asking for public comments on grizzly delisting in Yellowstone region

Environmental Issues, News,
Grizzly bear sow with three cubs - NPS photo
Grizzly bear sow with three cubs – NPS photo

Here’s some useful information about Yellowstone grizzly bear delisting from an announcement passed along by John Frederick. Note the link at the end to a federal site for submitting written comments . . .

Last month the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a proposed rule that would remove Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region. Next week, the USFWS will be hosting a public meeting to explain the delisting rule and “Conservation Strategy” (how bears will be managed post-delisting). They will accept written and oral public comments at the meeting:

Tuesday, April 12, 5:00-8:00pm—Bozeman, MT—Holiday Inn, 5 E. Baxter Ln. There will also be an informational open house from 2-4pm before the public comment begins. (This meeting, and one the night before in Cody, WY are the only currently scheduled USFWS public meetings on Yellowstone grizzly bear delisting.)

While the recovery of this grizzly bear population has been an amazing Endangered Species Act success story, we need to make sure it continues if grizzly bears are delisted! Your comments and support for grizzly bear conservation is crucial to this effort.

Can’t make the meeting? Submit your written comment by May 10.

Wyoming starts taking comments on grizzly management

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Grizzly bear sow with three cubs - NPS photo
Grizzly bear sow with three cubs – NPS photo

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is making plans for grizzly bear delisting . . .

The state of Wyoming is moving to take over management of grizzly bears as environmental groups increasingly scrutinize whether the bear population in the Greater Yellowstone region could sustain hunting.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission held its first public hearing Wednesday outlining how the state will manage grizzly bears when they come off of the federal endangered species list. It plans other meetings around the state.

The federal government announced in early March that it intends to lift threatened-species protections for grizzlies in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Read more . . .

Wolf advocates warn U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service they’re in for a lawsuit

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Gray Wolf
Gray Wolf

The USFWS is about to get sued to make them keep a tight eye on the wolf population for another five years . . .

A coalition of wolf advocates has warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they plan to sue if the agency doesn’t extend its supervision of wolf populations in Montana and Idaho another five years.

“When the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is offering five tags to every wolf hunter and Idaho Fish and Game is putting sharpshooters in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and funding aerial gunning in the Lolo Zone, we feel renewing another five years of federal monitoring is warranted,” said Matthew Koehler of Missoula-based Wild West Institute, one of five groups putting FWS on notice. “Given the situation on the ground and the ways state policy is changing, we think the prudent thing to do is keep monitoring wolf populations so they’re not hunted and trapped back to the brink of extinction.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Clearwater and Cascadia Wildlands joined Wild West Institute in the notice. By law, groups objecting to a federal agency must give it 60 days advance warning to offer time to craft a solution before going to court.

Read more . . .

On cusp of delisting, grizzly hunting a worry

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Grizzly Sow with Two Cubs - - Wikipedia en:User Traveler100
Grizzly Sow with Two Cubs – – Wikipedia en:User Traveler100

Here’s a lengthy, rational discussion of the concerns many conservationists have about the looming removal of grizzly bears from the Endangered Species List.

Kudos to Bill Fordyce for finding this one . . .

The federal government’s imminent release of plans to let states manage Yellowstone-area grizzly bears — including by hunting — rekindles debate about whether gunning down grizzlies will undo years of conservation work.

Federal officials are on the cusp of releasing and seeking public comment on draft rules and regulations that would remove Endangered Species Act protection from more than 717 Yellowstone–area grizzly bears. As officials propose the dramatic change, conservationists wonder whether hunters’ bullets might upend 40 years of advances.

Read more . . .

Lawsuit seeks tougher protections for grizzlies in Cabinet-Yaak

Environmental Issues, News, , ,
Grizzly Sow with Two Cubs - Wikipedia en:User Traveler100
Grizzly Sow with Two Cubs – Wikipedia en:User Traveler100

The US Fish and Wildlife Service continues to butt heads with conservationists over the status of the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population . . .

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal court to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to upgrade federal protections for grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem.

Grizzlies in the lower 48 states have been listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act since 1975. One of five distinct populations, the bears in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem have struggled compared with the populations occupying areas near Glacier and Yellowstone national parks.

The Missoula conservation group’s lawsuit alleges that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to use a scientific rationale in its 2014 decision not to reclassify the Cabinet-Yaak population as “endangered.”

Read more . . .

Wolverine case probes if feds made rational decision

Environmental Issues, News,

Wolverine (Gulo gulo, female, born 1996) at the Helsinki Zoo

Here’s the latest on the fight over adding wolverines to the endangered species list. (Bonus fact: The judge has actually seen three of them.) . . .

In a room packed with wolverine legal experts, U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen may have had the best brief. He actually saw the rare carnivore on three separate occasions.

“I don’t know what the odds are of seeing a wolverine three times,” Christensen told the attorneys, “but there’s no reason for any of you to explain it’s a member of the weasel family with large feet that eats marmots. I’ve seen that.”

Christensen added he also had read the scientific reports on the wolverine’s habitat and population, was aware of how elusive the animal is and how hard it is to study. What he wanted to know in the case of Center for Biological Diversity et. al. v. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was whether an agency decision denying Endangered Species Act protection to wolverines was reasonable or arbitrary.

Read more . . .

Feds consider endangered species protection for fisher

Environmental Issues, News,

Fisher in winter coat - from Wikipedia

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is looking at endangered species protection for the Northern Rockies fisher . . .

Government officials will consider new protections for a small, fanged predator that thrives in old-growth forests of the Northern Rockies over concerns that trapping, habitat loss and poisoning could be harming the animal’s population.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that it plans a yearlong review to determine if the Northern Rockies fisher should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The species historically occupied a Rocky Mountains range that stretched across parts of Washington, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, wildlife advocates say. The animals are now limited in the Rockies to an area along the Montana-Idaho border.

Read more . . .

Tribes object to delisting of grizzly bear; take fight to DC

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

Cinca, May 5, 2015 by W K Walker

Tribal leaders in the United States and Canada have registered strong objections with the U.S. federal government over its intent to remove the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species List. Native News Online posted two stories on this conflict recently. The first discusses the visit of a tribal delegation to various federal offices early this month . . .

Tribal leaders took the fight to save grizzly bears from trophy hunters’ guns, and in the process defend tribal spiritual rights and sovereignty, to the highest offices of the federal government last week. What began with a loudly applauded announcement denouncing the delisting of the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by NCAI President, Brian Cladoosby, in the presence of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, concluded with a delegation of tribal leaders meeting with Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Mike Connor, and US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director, Dan Ashe.

Over forty tribes have issued declarations and resolutions opposing the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the ESA, a status change that will hand management of the grizzly to the states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, all of which intend to operate high-dollar trophy hunts of the grizzly on sacred and ancestral tribal homelands. Removing federal protections from the grizzly will also remove the existing protections on the lands the bear occupies, loosening restrictions on energy, livestock and timber leases on approximately two million acres of Greater Yellowstone.

Coalescing around GOAL Tribal Coalition, tribal nations state that delisting the grizzly is contrary to tribal interests and will cause irreversible damage to tribal cultural practices due to the significance of the grizzly in foundational narratives and ceremonies. “The grizzly bear is sacred to us. We want the grizzly bear to remain protected. We do not want the states trophy hunting the grizzly bear,” insists Vice Chairman Tyler.

Continue reading . . .

A couple of weeks later, the Assembly of First Nations in Canada weighed in on the matter . . .

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief, Perry Bellegarde, has petitioned President Barack Obama to “reconsider the decision to delist the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and to permit States to profit from trophy hunts of this sacred being.” The AFN is a national advocacy organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada, which includes more than 900,000 people living in 634 First Nation communities and in cities and towns across the country.

The AFN’s just released letter comes in the wake of a delegation of tribal leaders meeting with the White House Council, and House and Senate offices on Capitol Hill. During those meetings, Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) indicated to the envoys for the massed tribal opposition that he would take up the fifty-strong tribal coalition’s fight. Tribes state that delisting the grizzly bear is contrary to tribal interests and will cause irreversible damage to tribal cultural practices due to the significance of the grizzly in ceremonies integral to tribal religions.

Tribes are insisting that the “thorough” and “meaningful” consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) mandated by President Obama in his 2013 Executive Order creating the White House Council on Native American Affairs be honored, along with a raft of other treaties, acts, executive orders, secretarial orders, and laws.

Continue reading . . .

Things looking up for black-footed ferrets

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Black-footed ferret

A lengthy but interesting article on efforts to reintroduce the black-footed ferret . . .

No one said trapping black-footed ferrets at night in the remote Wyoming plains was easy. Even biologists admit spotlighting the nocturnal 3-pound critters hiding among sagebrush and tall, cured grass is probably not the most effective method.

But for right now, it’s the only way to survey one of a handful of colonies of an animal once thought extinct.

“We’re looking for eye shine of ferrets,” said Nichole Bjornlie, Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s nongame biologist, as she bumped along a dark, rutted road in late August. “They have a very, very bright blue turquoise.”

Read more . . .

Grizzlies captured for study as feds look at delisting

Environmental Issues, News, ,

More grizzly bear monitoring action as the feds move towards removing the animal from the endangered species list in some areas . . .

Twenty-four grizzly bears have been captured so far this year in and around Yellowstone National Park as wildlife managers start another season of research toward a potential lifting of federal protections.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team captured the grizzlies in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and outside the parks in Montana and Wyoming.

Teams are now starting to trap grizzlies in eastern Idaho to attach radio or GPS collars.

Read more . . .