Grizzly bears, which have been rare since the 1940s, are struggling to reestablish themselves in their natural habitat of Idaho.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) hopes to change that by revising their management plan to combine all Grizzly Bear populations in the Lower 48 states into a “single protected population.”
Previously, the USFWS classified Grizzly Bear populations into six distinct population segments (DPS) based on their geographic distribution.
Those six populations have been actively tracked by state and federal partners for decades, with each population managed in unique and sometimes disconnected ways.
According to the new proposal, Grizzly Bears would form a “single distinct population segment” that includes the states of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming, all of which have historic Grizzly habitat.
The USFWS hopes that this strategy will help expand and connect populations. Their ultimate goal is to increase the Grizzly Bear population to the point where the species is no longer considered “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
Maintaining all recovery zones together in one DPS will increase the speed of recovery in remaining ecosystems and the overall viability of grizzly bears, increasing the likelihood of successfully delisting the entire DPS by addressing the species’ recovery needs as a whole. -USFWS
In issuing the management change, the USFWS also denied Wyoming and Montana’s requests to delist their local populations in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide regions.
The USFWS determined that the petitions were “not warranted” after “a thorough review of the best scientific and commercial data available.”
The USFWS invites the public to comment on the proposed change during the 60-day comment period.
In the coming days, the Federal Register will schedule the following changes for official publication, after which the comment period will begin. You can find relevant updates and public meeting locations here.
