Trump Administration Won’t Stop Grizzly Bear Hunts

CBS News reports:

U.S. officials will not restore federal protections for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears, despite a court ruling that called into question the government’s rationale for turning grizzly management over to states that are now planning public hunts for the animals, according to an announcement Friday in in the Federal Register.

The disclosure from the Interior Department follows a months-long review of a decision last year to lift protections in place since 1975 for about 700 bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.

That review was launched when a federal appeals court said in a case involving gray wolves in the Great Lakes that the Interior Department needed to give more consideration to how a species’ loss of historical habitat affects its recovery.

Wyoming Public Media reports:



Wyoming is drafting a plan for its first grizzly bear hunt in decades. Conservation groups are accusing the state of not following agreed-upon quotas for how many Yellowstone Grizzly can be hunted.

Andrea Santarsiere is the with Center for Biological Diversity. Her group strongly opposes the hunt. “We don’t support trophy hunting,” said Santarsiere. “And that’s what this hunt is.”

Under an agreement between Idaho, Montana and Wyoming there are a specific number of Yellowstone grizzlies that can be hunted. But the numbers are fractional – for example under the agreement Wyoming can hunt 1.45 of a female bear.