House Committee Votes on Bill to Sidestep Fish and Wildlife Service and Delist Grizzly Bears

The House Natural Resources Committee will today vote on Rep. Harriet Hageman’s Grizzly Bear State Management Act, which seeks to reissue a 2017 Fish and Wildlife Service rule delisting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) grizzly bear population and takes the extreme step of barring judicial review of the reissued rule. The rule that H.R. 281 would reissue was held unlawful by a federal district court in 2018 — a decision affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2020.

Late last year, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) finalized a species status assessment for grizzly bears finding that decreased conservation measures for grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem would threaten their viability, resiliency, and ultimately recovery. The service thus concluded that the best available science requires the GYE population to remain listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Since the species status assessment was published, the Trump administration has proposed rolling back habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act; fast-tracking mining and logging, including in grizzly bear habitat; and eliminating protections for roadless areas that form the secure core habitat for grizzly bears.

Rep. Hageman’s bill seeks to override both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Fish and Wildlife Service by turning grizzly management over to Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho — exposing grizzly bears to greater threats.

“Efforts to delist grizzly bears by congressional action are attempts to ignore what is required by the Endangered Species Act to achieve grizzly recovery,” said Christopher Servheen, Ph.D., retired USFWS grizzly bear recovery coordinator. “The current administration and Congress are working to defund grizzly bear science and monitoring, dramatically reduce funding for federal land management agencies in grizzly range, increase timber harvest and road building in grizzly habitat, and weaken or eliminate the fundamental laws that grizzly recovery depends on like the ESA, the National Environmental Policy Act and the United States Forest Service Roadless Rule. At the same time, recreation pressure on public lands and private land development are accelerating rapidly in grizzly habitat putting even more stress on grizzlies. Congressional delisting while the cumulative impacts of these actions are ongoing is irresponsible and will result in immediate declines in grizzly numbers and range.”

“This bill completely disregards both federal courts and a science-based agency decision to forcefully turn over management of Greater Yellowstone grizzly bears to the states,” said Jenny Harbine, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies Office. “Barring judicial review and handing over the management keys to state agencies that ignore science would increase the already-high number of grizzly bear deaths and would be devastating to bears’ long-term recovery. Safeguards must remain in place until science shows grizzly bears are fully recovered, and until states have protections in place to ensure grizzly bears will thrive for future generations.”

Earthjustice and over 50 groups signed onto a letter opposing the bill.