A federal judge in Missoula, Mont., has taken a cautious approach to ruling in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear delisting. While perhaps overly cautious, the first order in the contentious case is temporary.
U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen issued a 14-day temporary restraining order halting grizzly bear hunting that was scheduled to begin on Sept. 1 in Idaho and Wyoming.
While the order halts any hunting of recently delisted grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in the two states, it is not a ruling on the merits of the case. The case itself is centered on whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2017 removal of grizzly bears in the GYE from the Endangered Species Act’s list of “threatened” species is lawful. In effect, the judge is taking more time to decide that question, and not allowing hunting to proceed while he makes that decision. At any point over the next two weeks, the judge could take several steps: make a ruling on the case, extend the temporary restraining order prohibiting hunting or terminate the order and reinstate the scheduled hunting seasons.
In issuing the temporary restraining order, Judge Christensen cites Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals precedent under which the irreparable harm necessary for issuance of temporary restraining order can be the death of a single member of the species, as opposed to harm at the population level.
“This is more red tape than it is scientific wildlife management. Every threshold for delisting has been met and surpassed, the distinct population clause of the Endangered Species Act has been upheld in court and the delisting and management of grizzly bears in Idaho and Wyoming won’t have any impact on separate and still-protected populations of grizzlies in northern Montana or Washington,” said Heusinkveld. “The bottom line is that Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzlies have recovered and are no longer in need of federal protections.” Read more
