Grizzly bears in the lower 48 will remain protected as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials announced Wednesday.
The decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came after Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho argued that grizzlies had recovered and should be managed by the states rather than the federal government, especially in and around Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. Those regions are each home to about 1,000 bears and that management change could eventually include a hunting season.
Instead of delisting grizzly populations one by one as they recover, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they will consider all grizzlies outside of Alaska that exist in and between six federally-designated recovery zones in the Northern Rockies as part of one, bigger bear population. The agency said that bigger population still needs protections because it faces threats from human-caused mortality and habitat loss…