Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has announced that his administration will push for the end of federal protection measures for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Wildlife Refuge, which also includes the states of Idaho and Montana.
In 1975, when the grizzly bears were declared endangered, there were only 100 of them in the area, and now their number has grown to more than 1000 individuals.
Gordon said that a request to lift the restrictions will soon be sent to the Federal Service for Fish and Animal Resources. The agency will consider this request within 90 days and will make a final decision in a year.
Protective measures for grizzly bears were lifted in 2017, but in 2018 they were reinstated by federal court before the first hunt in many years took place. In July of this year, a federal appeals court upheld the decision. Andrea Zaccardi, legal counsel for the Center for Biological Diversity, called the governor’s request “outrageous” and made bears a “target of trophy hunters”. The state governments of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana cannot be trusted with responsibility for regulating the grizzly bear population, she added.
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Too many bears?
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