Sh*t or Get off the Pot Says Judge to Feds About Yellowstone Grizzlies

With recovery goals long since met and a deadline that is a year overdue, a Wyoming judge has ordered federal wildlife officials to finally make the call on delisting Yellowstone grizzly bears. 

The decision, ordered by a U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge on Friday, is a move many are hopeful will end up with state-level management of grizzlies in the new year. With a new administration set to take over in a little over a month, Judge Alan Johnson is giving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 45 days to honor their end of the bargain - which they have been sitting on for over a year now.

The decision was issued after a petition, led by Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, accused federal officials of ‘hibernating’ on the issue this past June. In the event that the federal agency is somehow able to meet the newly imposed 45-day deadline, it would have taken them nearly three times as long as originally scheduled.

“[T]he Court finds it proper to require FWS to issue its 12-month finding within 45 days of this Order,” the legal filing read. “To be sure, this deadline will allow FWS to take its mandatory action nearly two years after it was initially due, as well as within a mere few weeks of the schedule it already indicated it could meet on its own.” 

In an effort to “prevent the Service from again failing to meet its own internal schedule,” the ruling, directed at both the U.S. Department of the Interior and Fish and Wildlife’s top brass, was applauded by Gov. Gordon.

“With the bear recovered, it is long past time for GYE grizzly bear management to be entrusted to the states,” Gordon said. “The USFWS can no longer stand unresponsive to our petition to move forward with the delisting process.”

With recovery goals long-since met and bear numbers tripling in size over the past 40 years, this is truly a conservation success story and should be celebrated as such. But without federal protections in place, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would be in control of these bears, which would likely be the beginning of the first grizzly bear hunting season in the lower 48 in over 50 years. 

But let’s not forget, this isn’t our first rodeo when it comes to delisting grizzlies. With two other delisting attempts, both of which were approved, lawsuits from environmentalists and the anti-hunting crowd ended up overturning those decisions.

While it does seem that the feds will look at delisting grizzly bears favorably within the 45-day window, there’s plenty that still has to come together. Outside of the administrative process, the decision will require plenty of public input, including the all-but-expected pending legal responses from those who will undoubtedly be opposed.

With the January 20th deadline lining up with President-elect Donald Trump taking office, and the departures of both the current U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director, things should be interesting as we enter the new year.