Interior Dept. Proposes Expanding State Authority Over Grizzly Bear Management
While grizzlies remain listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, this could set the stage for future efforts to fully delist some populations.
The Interior Department has proposed a major policy shift that would give Western state fish-and-game agencies more authority over grizzly bear management in the Lower 48 states.
While grizzlies remain listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), this could set the stage for future efforts to fully delist some populations and potentially allow regulated hunting.
The announcement by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik was made in core grizzly bear habitat just north of Yellowstone National Park, with Western governors in attendance.
While details of specific management changes are virtually non-existent — the federal rules will be published on Friday — the Interior Department stresses that it is not removing grizzly bears from federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. Rather, it is proposing “to clarify the geographic area where grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are subject to protection under the Endangered Species Act.”
In areas where Interior deems they don’t deserve protections, either because bear numbers have exceeded population thresholds or because they are endangering life or property, the USFWS also “proposed revisions to the current protective regulations to provide additional management flexibility for authorized agencies and individuals experiencing conflicts with grizzly bears.”
Grizzly bear running! Grizzlies can reach speeds of up to 35mph (56km/h) pic.twitter.com/qTqByfG2Ng
— Weird and Terrifying (@weirdterrifying) January 4, 2023
The move was supported by members of the U.S. Senate Western Caucus, who support enhanced flexibility in managing these bears.
Senator Barrasso also issued a media release, applauding the decision to return grizzly management to the west. If finalized, the rule would provide a tiered framework that would allow state wildlife managers to have more flexibility in managing federally listed species.
It would also give states the ability to make on-the-ground decisions important to grizzly bear conservation and ensuring human safety. The rule would cover all grizzly bears in the lower 48 U.S. states. The DOI will receive public comment on the proposed rule over the next 30 days.
Hunters and ranchers are highly supportive of the move and are bracing for the usual legal onslaught from environmental activists.
The news was widely hailed by hunting and livestock groups as well as by the Republican governors of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, who said their respective agencies are prepared to shoulder management responsibilities for bear populations that have swelled from a few hundred when they were listed as endangered in 1973 to more than 2,000 today.
Grizzly bears have been steadily roaming outward from their strongholds in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex south of Glacier National Park and in the Yellowstone Ecosystem into habitats and human communities that are unaccustomed to dealing with the apex predators and opportunistic scavengers.
The rule announced yesterday authorizes state and tribal wildlife agencies to activate their own grizzly bear management plans, in coordination with the USFWS. Don’t expect states to immediately move toward proposing hunting seasons for grizzlies, as many environmental groups have warned. In Montana, at least, the state’s Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department has established a 5-year moratorium on hunting grizzlies.
My husband and I toured Glacier National Park last year. We took the warnings related to grizzly bears seriously, and rented a cannister of bear spray (which, fortunately, was not needed)). However, I nixed a proposed hike after seeing a rather sizeable trail of bear scat along one of the paths we were considering.
Interestingly, it appears that the grizzly bears were among those to receive a pardon from “Autopen” Biden.
A full delisting of grizzlies was attempted in 2007, and again in 2017. The latter led to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department issuing hunting tags for a grizzly season. However, both the 2017 and 2007 delisting efforts were overturned in court.
States later petitioned to have the bears removed from federal protection.
The Biden administration in its final hours denied the petitions and released a rule affirming grizzlies’ protected status.
The Trump administration’s DOI proposal calls for revising the Biden-era rule by allowing state management of the species.
Of course, environmentalists are deeply unhappy about the move.
I'm a grizzly.
They just decided my own government doesn't get to protect me anymore.
Last week, Doug Burgum stood in a field outside Bozeman with the governors of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming and announced that grizzly bear management is moving to the states. The bear stays… pic.twitter.com/VKueHxAwJg
— Sammi🦋 (@StoriesBySammi) July 21, 2026
Clearly, the timing and outcome of any decision to remove grizzlies from Endangered Species Act protection remains uncertain, as scientific review, agency process, and litigation are still ahead. It will be interesting to see how the successful recovery of a predator population is handled, and whether the courts can balance the needs of the public against those of the animals.
At the same time, recovery is increasingly judged not just by bear numbers but by whether federal and state institutions can manage a successful, recovered population as effectively as they once managed decline.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
No, oh hell no
“I’m a grizzly.
They just decided my own government doesn’t get to protect me anymore.”
Your own government…?
So, who’d ya vote for, grizzly?
Wait, don’t tell me! Let me guess!
We should not only allow the hunting of grizzlies, we should require it of all Democratic federal candidates.
Leave me alone! I don’t vote Democrat. Grr…
Gentle Grizzlies are getting harder to find.
The areas of the lower 48 that have Grizzly bears can only support so many. Overpopulation of bears will push them into more populated areas and that won’t end well. I live on the edge of a national forest and when it’s dry, we get black bears. The hardest thing about that is teaching the 2nd homeowners and new residents this isn’t a zoo and to secure their garbage, take down their bird feeders and leave the bears the hell alone. Stop calling the police, stop calling game and fish when you see one walking across your property. Stay away and they will leave as long as you’re not providing food. We recently had a case to the west of us where a bear crawled up a power line pole. Instead of leaving it alone so it could come down safely, people stopped, got too close and took selfies, and drove the bear up higher until it was electrocuted.
Well that typifies a liberal. Keep pushing till it dies. Doesn’t matter if it’s animal, human or conservatism.
Nearly all bad bear encounters result from predictable bear behavior responding to stupid human behavior. I have had both black and grizzly, mostly black, bears roaming my property for 12 years without an issue – other than losing a few bags of dog food I neglected to bring in from a delivery – no fault of the hungry bear.
Please. Change brands, that last batch was nasty!
Bears are supposed to subsist off of picnic baskets at Jellystone Park.
I’ve seen my share of black, brown and grizzlies. Over the years. Especially when we used to bike the Sierras and the Rockies. That is whey I carry a .357 magnum in a chest rig. Also the wife carries bear spray. Which is also useful against antifa types. I’ve seen plenty of bear scat. I only get worried if it’s fresh or there is cub scat next to it. Don’t want any part of Mama bear.
“I’m a grizzly.
They just decided my own government doesn’t get to protect me anymore.”
Only an environmentalist can believe a statement this stupid.
I will always believe that a human life is more important than a grizzly bear’s life.
Why?
Humans have souls. Bears don’t.
Kill em all
Maybe do away with you first!
Forget bears. Let’s loosen up on THE REAL menace-
Frickin’ Canada Geese.
Illinois has failed so badly at Bear management that their Bears are fleeing to Indiana.
We live in TinyTown™ in NW Wyoming. We are in a part of the Big Horn Basin, just outside the Yellowstone ecosystem in what is essentially a sagebrush desert. On the mountainside across the highway from our little housing development that’s been here for over 25 years there is a fair-sized population of predators, including coyotes, golden eagles, and the occasional cougar (aka, mountain lion). I’ve seen a cougar loping down the alley behind the house in the early light, heading from the gully where it was probably hunting the mule deer to get to the mountain.
But we’ve never been known for bears, black or grizzlies, in this particular area. Last year, for the first time ever, we had a yearling male grizzly come into the neighborhood. It had come from the Absoroka Mountains more than 50 miles outside Yellowstone Park and crossed the South Fork of the Shoshone River with it’s mama bear and sibling the previous year (somebody got pictures of them). She probably drove it off to fend for itself once she thought it was big enough.
The problem was that there simply isn’t enough forage around here for a big bear to make a living. It was in terrible physical condition and made it up to our area by accident, and would probably have turned into a garbage feeder simply to survive. Every agency turned out when the calls came in, including the county deputy sheriffs, local police, animal control, and finally the WY Game and Fish people. Everybody in the area was standing in their doorways, rifles and shotguns in hand, just in case things didn’t work out well.
The G&F guys popped the bear with a dart, intending to relocate it somewhere else. But after examining it they decided to kill the bear instead because it was in such bad shape that relocating it would have resulted in its death anyway, either from a rival full-grown boar or starving to death in a new location.
So we now have grizzly bears wandering WELL outside the park boundaries, and even leaving the ecosystem for new territories because of their own population pressure. It was true for a while that grizzly bears would tend to avoid humans and human structures because they used to be hunted…the dumb ones got shot, the smart ones left people alone. But after so long of being “protected” they’ve lost their instilled caution, and are becoming used to humans again.
It’s only going to take one (1) bear attacking and eating a human child before every single grizz outside the Park is tracked down and killed. Which would the Bambi-believing eco-whackos prefer, that an isolated number of bears be managed by lottery hunts, or that all of them be exterminated? Because if the self-labeled “environmentalists” (who have no clue about wildlife) continue on their present course, that’s going to be the choice.
Sad to say, it’s same for the free-roaming mustangs and burros. It’s (relatively) easy to pass a law “protecting” these populations from culling. Inevitably, nothing in these laws ever addresses the very next (totally predictable) sticking point down the line in the universal Darwinian tragedy.
Let’s EST up a breeding program for Grizzly Bears and supply a few to the neighborhood of the folks who are opposed to management of population aka stewardship. Might as well bring in wolves and cougar as well while we’re at it. I’m sure these folks won’t have any objection to restoring the cougar and wolves to their natural range and/or expanding it a bit and adding in Grizzly. There’s no way those opposed to good stewardship would object to this plan unless of course they are NIMBY hypocrites who want their policies imposed only on others/elsewhere.
Maybe we should stop over population
We need Wild spaces and the animals that inhabit them
Say by deporting illegal immigrants, and stopping birthright citizenship?
Agreed. They were here first anway.
Good idea for large metro areas! I agree, let’s remove the exurbs and commuter towns that sprouted up and return them to their native condition to include wolves and cougar. Take everything built up after say 1950 and raze it, Plant native flora and bring in native animals to restore their natural range while designating these places as wildlife preserves.
I’m sure the folks who live/work in these spaces will totes understand the need for personal sacrifice and wouldn’t dream of attempting to outsource their demand for ‘wild spaces’ to areas far from their own homes. These folks will welcome the opportunity to bear the burden of their commitment to their stated principles/policy preferences.
In Massachusetts, we did exactly that to the AWFLs who railroaded through a state ban on leghold traps. The ban went so far as to make possession of such traps illegal.
The liberal town of Chelmsford was soon overrun with beaver dams and the concomitant flooding issues. The town fathers called the trappers to solve the problem, and the trappers refused. Said they didn’t want to help, and even if they did, they no longer had the “illegal” traps necessary to do the job. I believe they ended up paying a pretty penny to a trapper consortium out of New Hampshire, who hadn’t been as stupid as they were.
Yep. Its pretty galling for urban dwelling ‘city folk’ to demand there be super duper protections for Grizzly Bears (or even black/brown bears), Wolves, Cougar, Coyote even long after their population levels have recovered (in large part thanks to sportsmen, hunters) and to maintain ‘wilderness’ areas as space for them and their prey to roam ….but somehow those same folks never seem to demand establishing ‘wilderness areas’ and returning predatory species (and their prey) adjacent to their neighborhood. It’s always ‘someplace else’ that should play host to these predators never in their neck of the woods.
When these folks voluntarily surrender their suburban/exurban neighborhoods to turn them into Federal Wilderness areas then they can have some better credibility. The ‘natural range’ of all sorts of animals, including wolves, cougar, coyote was practically the entirety of ‘settled’ North America and bears of some sort weren’t far behind.
The bigger problem in at least MT are wolves, not brown bears. We have an awful lot of black bears, and thus, black bear interactions. Had one just weaned cub sleep right outside wife’s window for a couple weeks, crying every night. I had the wildlife people come in and pick it up for her safety. And, of course didn’t bother to tell her. Black bear behavior is well known, and easy to adjust to.
We do have brown bears in the county. Early on, got a couple killed. One by a BNSF train. The other shot, officially mistaken for a black bear – because all the officials assured us we didn’t have any brown bears. Turns out, USFS was lying through their teeth. They had relocated these two bears from the wilderness area just south of Glacier, because they were “problem” bears. Unless you get into the deep woods, you just don’t see brown bears. Much too shy around humans. Not like the ubiquitous black bears.
Our county pretty much follows a river, which means that we have ridges on both sides. We have brown bears on the northern ridge, and wolves on the Southey ridge. I worry more about the wolves. I am much more likely to shoot first, and ask questions later with the wolves. They were reintroduced, and Are not really the indigenous wolves killed off a century, maybe, earlier. These are bigger, and run in larger packs. And haven’t been good for the ranching business. But the good news is that the animal population most affected by the wolves is coyotes.
So, despite the ranching problems, CO is now doing so. Finding dead livestock. And the Dems running things in Boulder and Denver, are telling the ranchers to man up, and take their losses, because wolves were there first.
Those “ranching problems” you’re talking about are just the cost of doing business. Ranching has done more damage to the ecosystem of the west than Apex predators ever will.
If you have some spare time, this is the audio of a lecture given to Cornell juniors and seniors by a professor who is a politically conservative Christian and a dear friend of mine. It is high entertainment.
I especially recommend it to rremlinger and “sammi the grizzly”.
The meaning of nature: class discussion; Cornell University lecture, Natural Resources 407 (1994-03-31)
Abstract:
Class discussion: the meaning of nature: can human beings be fully comprehended under the term nature? Are human beings more valuable than any other part of nature? The infamous caterpillar example.
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/entities/publication/805f8ba3-ad9c-4689-b70e-297f0277cff3
The audio for the entire semester is here:
https://blogs.cornell.edu/envirobaer/religion-ethics-and-the-environment/
Gibble,
I did listen to some of the lecture, but I came away thinking it was much more philosophical that biological. Loved the statement regarding animals making a mess out of their environment. Too my knowledge as a biologist, only Homo sapiens “shit in their own nest”, and then live in it! Wonder if any of his students have seen or heard of what the humans did to the American Bison? Or seen photos of thousands of dead just rotting in the sun of the great plains? Those sorta things, along with the enjoyment of shooting coyotes, wolves, etc displayed by some tend to make me wonder.
Hmm. This is what I got when I tried to reply to my own comment:
Sorry, replies to unapproved comments are not allowed.
Is this a new policy?
Here is what I was trying to say:
FYI, Professor Baer has had conversations with Professor Jacobson (my former next door neighbor) over the years.
Nah. That’s been the case for a long while. Whenever your comment doesn’t immediately post it’s under whatever automated review criteria and/or awaiting human intervention. Since it isn’t ‘posted’ only you and admins can ‘see’ it so it makes sense not to allow replies to a post till it is ‘approved’. The timeline varies I’ve had comments that didn’t populate for over 24 hours, usually any held up are populated within 12 hours and some that only got hung up for a.few hours but never one that didn’t eventually show up.
Leave a Comment