MISSOULA, Mont. – We welcome today’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to return the Yellowstone grizzly bear to state management as a recovered species. Restoring the bear to this point is a high achievement of state, federal, and tribal experts working together since the 1980s, and we commend especially the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee for a job well done.
The strong biological evidence that Yellowstone grizzly bears are recovered clearly justifies today’s proposal, and we will join in the process of reviewing the proposal for certainty that recovery will hold before a final delisting decision is made.
We will work closely with other conservation leaders to insist on continued interagency cooperation that sustains a stable grizzly population, manages conflicts between bears and people, and employs ethical, scientifically-regulated hunting to the extent that it serves management goals and promotes respect for the grizzly and its conservation.
