Court Takes 72 Grizzly Bears Off Death Row

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the Fish and Wildlife Service's authorization to kill up to 72  grizzly bears on public land outside of Yellowstone National Park violated federal law. The license to kill had been granted in 2019 as a sop to private grazing operations and would have allowed an unlimited percentage of females to be killed in response to livestock conflict.

The grazing authorization had callously disregarded the significance of breeding bears to the species' recovery. Thankfully, the court has now remanded this morally bankrupt decision.

“We can only hope that the agencies, in reconsidering their deeply flawed analysis, will spare dozens of innocent female grizzly bears who were previously unjustly sentenced to death by the Trump administration,” said Andrea Zaccardi, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity's carnivore conservation program. “This ruling unequivocally confirms that federal officials cannot cowardly sidestep the law to allow grizzly bears to be callously killed on public lands in order to appease the livestock industry.”

The grazing program area – near the headwaters of the Green and Gros Ventre rivers and two designated wilderness areas in the Bridger-Teton National Forest – is a vital habitat for the imperiled Yellowstone grizzly bears, classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, as well as for fish, migratory birds, and other wildlife species.

The victory – or, at least reprieve – for the grizzlies is thanks to the dogged persistence of environmental orgs that forced the issue through the  courts. If you’re a fan of conservation through litigation, consider donating to: the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection.

Photo credit: Terry Tollefsbol / NPS