Government Wants Yellowstone Grizzlies Off Endangered List

(NewsCore) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said Monday it has filed an appeal in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a decision placing grizzly bears living in Yellowstone National Park under endangered species protection.

The bears were taken off the endangered species list in 2007 by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Two years later, a judge in Montana declared they should have federal protection, contradicting the FWS position.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont. vacated the delisting, saying FWS had not considered the threats of climate change and declared the federal government oversight of their recovery to be lax.

FWS, the state of Montana, and the county and tribal governments of the Yellowstone grizzly zone all disagree with the ruling, saying the bears should be delisted because they have returned to a stable population.

“The Yellowstone grizzly population is increasing at four to seven percent per year and is recovered and the agencies are committed to spending more than $3 million per year to maintain this healthy, recovered population,” said Chris Servheen, Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator.

There are an estimated 600 grizzly bears currently living in the Yellowstone ecosystem -- with the national park covering about 3,400 square miles (8,900sqkm) mostly in Wyoming, but extending into Montana and Idaho.

Servheen added that is three times the number of bears that existed in the area when FWS started its recovery plan in 1981.

The appeal is expected to take between 12 and 18 months.