Western states effort to delist grizzlies, wolves, gets Congressional hearing

The Western wildlife experts testifying before Congress confirmed the recovery of grizzly bears and wolves, and cautioned against transferring control to states where legislators might disregard science-based management plans.

At issue were two congressional bills to remove grizzly bears from the endangered species list in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. A third bill delisted the gray wolves. All three excluded the actions from judicial review. The hearing was livestreamed.

“While each of these bills is unique, they share the common thread of circumventing the scientific processes currently underway,” said Steven Guertin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deputy director for policy.

“We believe that the administrative processes prescribed by the ESA and the Administrative Procedures Act, including public participation is the best path for adding or removing species from the Endangered Species Act," he said. "These processes under the law ensure that the integrity of the important goals of the ESA envisioned by Congress 50 years ago are maintained.”

Representatives from Wyoming and Montana, all three Republicans are key sponsors of the bills to delist grizzlies, were looking for different answers. Eastern Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale said Montana has the largest population of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states, with nearly 2,000 grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone and northern Continental Divide ecosystems combined.

Western Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke has said the blueprint for delisting grizzly bears is in the work U.S. Fish and Wildlife did when he was Interior secretary. A federal court rejected that effort.

Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman said wildlife advocates had spent too much time counting dead bears and not enough time counting live animals.

“It's not about the number that may have been taken pursuant to appropriate take permits, or pursuant to appropriate management. It's the number of live animals. So why would Democrats want to focus on death,” Hageman said. “That isn't even a factor to be considered under the Endangered Species Act. We on this side, however, we care about life and we care about the living species, and so does the Endangered Species Act. The governors of Wyoming Idaho and Montana have petitioned to delist the grizzly bear because the data shows that it is warranted as per the Endangered Species Act itself. Meanwhile, environmental litigants have been holding farmers, ranchers and the government hostage to their demands and for the purpose of protecting their own pocketbooks.”

One wildlife expert who supported the delisting of grizzlies before growing concerned about state legislators was Chris Servheen, the original Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Now retired, Servheen testified that after watching the Montana Legislature enact non-science-based management plans for wolves he withdrew his support from delisting bears.

“It is important that you know that I believed in and promoted the eventual delisting of recovered grizzly bears and wolves and turning them over to state management. I had faith in the wildlife professionals in state fish and fame agencies,” Servheen said. He wrote the original management plan for grizzlies to be delisted as an endangered species. I believed that these state wildlife professionals would be good stewards to continue to carefully manage grizzly bears and wolves. This all changed in the past few years when state legislators in Montana and Idaho passed new laws to dramatically reduce wolf numbers and to place aggressive, indiscriminate wildlife killing methods into grizzly bear habitat.

Servheen said it doesn't take much imagination to realize that if grizzly bears were delisted by congressional action and turned over to state management, that legislatures and governors would do the same thing to grizzly bears that they are currently doing to wolves. They would try to legislatively minimize grizzly numbers inside recovery zones and eliminate most grizzly bears outside recovery zones, he said.

Rosendale invited Choteau rancher Karli Johnson to talk about the grizzly interactions north of the continental divide. Johnson told the Department of Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries that interaction with habituated bears are increasing, not only on her ranch, but also in Choteau proper.

Livestock losses are increasing, Johnson said. She finds herself raising her children in proximity to a sow grizzly with cubs, who doesn’t seem to be afraid while touring Johnson’s outbuildings.

“Bears like this are becoming more and more common in our area with population targets having been met for what some people believe is as long as a decade if not two,” Johnson said. “The population is beyond the scope of the natural habitat and bears are being pushed out to scavenge on the fringe of human civilization. That sow grizzly bear and I don't want to raise our babies together. And we're being put in a position that we have to. And it's not safe for either one of our families to do that. And that's why today we're asking for additional management tools for both me and that sow grizzly bears so we don't have to raise our babies together.”

The discussion about delisting gray wolves was advanced by lawmakers from Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who produced photos of human fetuses and asked Democrats if they would put human babies on the endangered species list.

“The Department of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's delisted the gray wolf in the lower 48 United States through a process that included the best science and data available at over 6,000 wolves at the time of the delisting, and more than 7,000 wolves in the U.S. Currently, the gray wolf is an endangered species act success story, and it shouldn't languish on the endangered species list any longer, especially as such listings defies common sense and science,” Boebert said.