Should Idaho’s grizzlies be delisted under Endangered Species Act? Governor says yes

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Wednesday submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urging the agency to remove the state’s grizzly bears from Endangered Species Act protections.

Little’s petition argues for delisting grizzlies on the basis that the protected population doesn’t meet the definition of a species. It comes as the governors of Montana and Wyoming, which co-manage the region’s grizzlies alongside Idaho, have submitted delisting petitions of their own.

While grizzlies in Alaska are not considered at risk, bears in the contiguous U.S. were listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. The listing applied to bears in a swath from the Idaho-Montana border with Canada down through Idaho’s border with Wyoming.

Officials identified six recovery zones for the species, including the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming; the Selkirks in North Idaho and northeast Washington; the Bitterroots in Central Idaho and the Cabinet-Yaak area of North Idaho and northwest Montana. At the time, officials estimated there were between 150 and 300 bears in the region.

Grizzlies were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in 2007 and again in 2017, but each time have been relisted. In 2018, Idaho was poised to have a single grizzly bear hunt, which was shut down when a judge restored protections and said federal officials hadn’t used the best available science to delist the bears.

Since grizzlies were first listed, the few hundred bears have grown to number roughly 2,000, Little’s petition argues.

“Bureaucratic gridlock is keeping healthy grizzly populations on the threatened species list unnecessarily,” Little said in an Idaho Department of Fish and Game news release. “When there’s no exit for healthy grizzly populations from the Endangered Species Act, it’s time to demand a reset.”

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte submitted his own delisting petition in December, which focused on Montana’s Northern Continental Divide recovery zone. In January, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon petitioned the agency to delist the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem bears. Little’s petition is the broadest and calls for complete delisting. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Idaho environmental groups have already expressed concern. Brad Smith, North Idaho director for the Idaho Conservation League, said the organization opposes the state’s petition. Smith said grizzly populations in three of the four recovery zones in Idaho — the Bitterroot, Selkirk and Cabinet-Yaak — have not met recovery criteria.

Suzanne Asha Stone, executive director of International Wildlife Coexistence Network, said Idaho has not kept its word on agreements it made when wolves were delisted.

“It is also likely that the state of Idaho will make empty promises concerning the grizzly that it later abandons,” Stone said. “Wolves and grizzly deserve federal protection considering Idaho’s unfortunate decisions to put persecution politics over scientifically sound management of these keystone species.“