09.27.16

Grijalva Tells Fish and Wildlife Director He Will Oppose Grizzly Delisting in Yellowstone Region Without Adequate Safeguards

Washington, D.C. – House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dan Ashe this morning stating his opposition to the proposed removal of Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) absent meaningful safeguards to guarantee the future of the population. You can read the letter at http://bit.ly/2dh9zta.

The letter follows one Grijalva received from the National Park Service earlier this month laying out the agency’s multiple concerns with the FWS delisting plan. That letter is available at http://bit.ly/2cSEFDV.

Key concerns include whether states will be allowed to slash the grizzly population by close to 200 bears; how FWS and states will facilitate movement of bears from GYE to other populations; and where trophy hunters will be allowed to kill bears for sport.

“This proposal has multiple serious problems, as Park Service leaders have made clear, and until FWS addresses those problems I cannot support the delisting,” Grijalva said today. “Fish and Wildlife needs to puts law and science ahead of short-term local wishes to reduce the bear population. In the meantime, grizzlies must continue to receive endangered species protections.”

The GYE grizzly bear population is currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A FWS proposal to delist the species published in March lacked details about state management strategies or federal steps to ensure sustained recovery. FWS reopened public comment on the proposal earlier this month without fully providing that information.

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