Immediately following the a U.S. District Judge's ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must rule on the protected status of Yellowstone area grizzly bears within 45 days, 15 national, regional and state environmental, tribal, and animal welfare groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt a new approach to recovering grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies, pointing to a new science-based report by Dr. Christopher Servheen, the former USFWS Grizzly Bear recovery coordinator (1981-2016). The petition comes about a month ahead of the USFWS’ deadline to make a decision on delisting the bears. Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have all petitioned for the Yellowstone area population to be delisted and managed by the states.

Earthjustice drafted the petition which asks the Service to update its Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan to incorporate the points raised in Dr. Servheen’s new report, which details site-specific management actions to aid in the bears’ recovery. Dr. Servheen led the team that wrote the existing recovery plan for grizzly bears in 1993, and is now calling for this work to be updated with the best available science and latest conservation practices. Dr. Servheen says the new management approach would give bears a chance at a durable recovery. 

“The grizzly bears in the Northern U.S. Rockies live in only 4% of their former range in the lower 48 states,” said Dr. Christopher Servheen. “Grizzly presence is part of what makes this part of America so special. We should choose a careful management approach that will assure the future for these magnificent animals because they are an important part of the heritage of the American West.” 

The petition and recovery plan updates come during a record-breaking deadly year for grizzlies. Seventy-three grizzly bears have been killed in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem alone. Throughout the U.S. Northern Rockies, at least 90 grizzly bears have died this year due to human causes. In his paper, Dr. Servheen highlights a number of mounting threats to grizzlies: 

• Increased human development and encroachment into grizzly territory;

• New state laws and policies that are lethal to grizzlies and other carnivores;

• The ongoing harms from climate change on grizzly bears and their habitats; 

• Other land uses that are bringing grizzlies into more contact with humans and livestock. 

Dr. Servheen’s proposed updates to the 1993 Recovery Plan include the following revisions:

• A switch from management of the Northern Rockies bears in five distinct and isolated populations to a single, interconnected metapopulation of grizzlies across the region;

• New protections for grizzlies against potentially lethal human activities;

• Protections for grizzly habitat and careful mortality management in connectivity areas between ecosystems;

• Policies that reduce human/bear conflicts through increasing resources and assistance for communities;

• Reliable commitments from state and federal agencies to maintain grizzly and habitat protections after delisting. 

Earthjustice led the petition effort, submitting it on behalf of: Center for Biological Diversity, Endangered Species Coalition, Friends of the Bitterroot, Friends of the Clearwater, Great Bear Foundation, Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society Legislative Fund, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment, Park County Environmental Council, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, and Yaak Valley Forest Council.

“Grizzlies need a new vision for recovery that incorporates the latest science and conservation practices,” said Mary Cochenour, senior attorney in Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies office. “Grizzly bears have not achieved recovery under the old 1993 plan because it could not have anticipated the level of modern-day human encroachment in grizzly habitat, nor did the 1993 plan foresee the recent enactment of state and federal regulations and policy that continue to undermine recovery efforts.”