Congress ups ante on grizzly delisting

Representatives working with U.S. Department of Interior to secure state management

POWELL — With the change of presidential administrations, Wyoming’s delegation in Washington has new hope of removing the grizzly bear from the endangered species list.

In a letter to newly confirmed Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, four U.S. representatives urged President Donald Trump and the secretary to make moves to allow state management of Yellowstone area grizzlies.

The representatives urge Burgum to reverse a Biden administration policy proposal that reclassifies grizzly populations into a single Distinct Population Segment and denies petitions to delist grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem by Wyoming and Montana.

The letter from Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho), Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), and Troy Downing (R-Mont.) calls on the current administration to return management of recovered grizzly populations to state wildlife agencies, “where it rightfully belongs.”

“Instead of celebrating one of the greatest conservation success stories in American history, states were punished for doing their job too well,” Hageman stated in a press release late last week. “The previous administration’s agenda-driven reasoning against delisting the grizzly is absurd: because grizzlies have expanded beyond their designated recovery zones, they supposedly cannot be delisted. My colleagues and I are optimistic that President Trump’s administration will restore sensibility by delisting the grizzly bear and returning management to state control.”

Burgum, who briefly was a GOP candidate for president before dropping out in late 2023, has already committed to work with Montana, Idaho and Wyoming to delist the species.

In mid-January he told Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who is working with Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) on delisting legislation in the Senate, “I’m with you.”

“We should be celebrating when species come off the endangered species list as opposed to fighting every way we can to try to keep them on that list,” Burgum told Daines on Jan. 16. “As the chair of Western governors I came to understand how dedicated [Western] state officials are. I think there’s a belief that when [grizzly bears] come off of federal protection that they’re unprotected. No, they’re managed as all the other species in the state by the locals who’ve got the closest data. So yes, I pledge to work with you on this issue.”

Zinke, who was the DOI secretary during the first Trump administration before resigning amid misconduct allegations, said current efforts to protect the species are about control, not conservation.

“The grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Area have fully recovered. Just ask the wildlife experts and locals who see it first hand every day,” Zinke said. “Congresswoman Hageman and I are asking Secretary Burgum to recognize this conservation win and return management of grizzlies back to the states.

“At this point, ESA protection for the grizzly is about government control of land and resources, not about true conservation,” he argued. “If we are managing populations based on science, instead of a radical green agenda, the grizzly would have been delisted decades ago.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service declined petitions earlier this year from Wyoming and Montana to delist grizzly bears as endangered, instead changing from six Distinct Population Segments to one DPS that covers the entirety of the Lower 48.

While it keeps the species listed, it also proposed new rules to allow private landowners to kill bears that threaten livestock.

“This reclassification will facilitate recovery of grizzly bears and provide a stronger foundation for eventual delisting,” USFWS Director Martha Williams said in a statement prior to Burgum’s appointment. “And the proposed changes to our … rule will provide management agencies and landowners more tools and flexibility to deal with human/ bear conflicts, an essential part of grizzly bear recovery.”

While the three states within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have been pressing for state management, the Endangered Species Coalition said the states are “grossly unprepared to manage grizzlies and have adopted anti-predator policies that would reverse the recovery of this iconic native species.”

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be commended for keeping grizzly bears protected under the Endangered Species Act in the Northern Rockies and rejecting state management that would undo decades of conservation work that has helped us make tremendous progress toward bringing back a species that was almost wiped out,” the organization reported in a recent press release. “We are also concerned that the agency’s proposed rule to provide more management flexibility will result in more grizzly bear mortality within areas where they remain protected.”

Wyoming Wildlife Advocates Executive Director Kristin Combs isn’t a fan of political leaders making wildlife management decisions.

“Should legislators be making these decisions about wildlife management? There’s a resounding ‘No’ in society — that we should leave wildlife management up to the science. Just because a new administration has taken power doesn’t necessarily mean that negates all the science that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has looked at in making this decision,” she said in a Monday interview.

She said one problem with state management of species of concern — like sage grouse and grizzly bears — is the way wildlife managers “walk on eggshells” around extractive energy industries.

“Hageman has pretty much come out and said, this decision is keeping us from using our resources. And what that means is more logging, more mining, more oil and gas drilling in areas that I’m pretty sure that people wouldn’t want that to be the norm, especially in like Northwest Wyoming,” Combs said.

She suggested concentrating on reducing conflicts and more educational programs about living with large predators would be a better use of time than trying to overturn the FWS decision.

In 2005, the grizzly bear population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem was estimated to be more than 600.

Now, grizzly bear populations have been estimated somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 between the Demographic Monitoring Area and surrounding areas outside of the DMA as their footprint increases in the region.

In that same year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classified Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bears as a Distinct Population Segment.

Then in 2007, Yellowstone grizzlies were removed from the endangered species list.

But in 2009 the delisting was overturned because the Department of Interior “didn’t adequately consider the impacts of the potential loss of white bark pine nuts due to climate change,” according to court records.

Once again in 2017, the service removed the Yellowstone grizzly from the endangered species list, but in 2018 a federal judge stopped hunts in Wyoming and Idaho and eventually relisted the grizzly for protection.

In 2020, during the first Trump administration, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision to keep the Yellowstone grizzly on the endangered species list.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department classifies the grizzly bear as a trophy game animal.

“Grizzly bear populations have biologically recovered in Wyoming; however, grizzly bears are currently listed as a threatened population under the Endangered Species Act,” the agency reports.

In the U.S. Senate, Lummis, the Senate Western Caucus chair, has introduced the Grizzly Bear State Management Act alongside Sen. John Barrasso, Montana Sens. Daines and Tim Sheehy, and Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, all Republicans.

This bill would remove grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the endangered species list and shift management of the grizzly bear populations to the states. The bill preserves federal oversight for population monitoring while giving states more flexibility in managing grizzly populations.

“The Endangered Species Act is broken beyond repair, and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Grizzly is the perfect example,” said Lummis. “Western states have proven track records of effectively managing their wildlife populations, and returning grizzly responsibility back to the local level ensures ignorant Washington bureaucrats keep their paws off of state matters.”

This story was published on February 11, 2025.