Environmentalist groups are planning on suing the federal government, accusing it of allowing the killing of grizzly bears “beyond sustainable levels” near Yellowstone National Park.
The Sierra Club and the Western Watersheds Project said that the allowance could see the regional female grizzly population decline by more than three times the rate required to maintain the current population.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the US Forest Service approved a “take” of 15 grizzly bears in two orders that last until 2019 and 2022. The directives were issued in September 2013 and September 2014, and apply to Grand Teton National Park and Bridger-Teton National Forest.
But the federal agencies did not take into account previously issued active hunting allowances, Earthjustice lawyers representing the two groups argued. In a letter notifying the federal government of their intent to sue, the environmentalist organizations said that the departments have effectively authorized the killing of up to 65 female grizzlies in a single year–“a level that more than triples FWS’s own established mortality limit.”
“The Endangered Species Act requires federal officials to look at that big picture, yet they failed to do so,” Earthjustice lawyer Tim Preso said.
Sierra Club campaigner Bonnie Rice said that the allotted “take” could have a grave long-term impact on “a slow reproducing animal like the grizzly bear.”
Western Watersheds Project Executive Director Travis Brunner said that the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued its order “without presenting sound scientific reasoning that considers the regional impact on the species.”
As The Sentinel reported in December, watchdogs often accuse the federal government of arriving at politically-motivated “scientific” conclusions. That month, the Department of the Interior also, allegedly, weakened its scientific integrity standards, whistleblower protections and the rigor of internal investigations in response to charges of deliberately unscientific decision-making.
The threat to sue the federal government over grizzly protections comes on top of efforts led by American Indian nations to protect the animal. Last week, the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council passed a resolution denouncing any potential removal of the Yellowstone grizzly from a list of threatened species maintained under the Endangered Species Act. The organization said that its members “haven’t been consulted as required by federal law,” according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
This is a particularly sensitive time for the famed western bear. The Sierra Club and the Western Watersheds Project said that two of grizzlies’ main food sources are disappearing due, in part, to climate change, and that the animal’s pivot to a more meat-heavy diet will put in greater conflict with humans. The increased peril that will result from more frequent interactions with people, the pair of organizations said, comes on top of stagnant population growth over the past ten years.
