Yellowstone Grizzlies Back on Federal Endangered Species List

BOZEMAN, Montana, September 23, 2009 (ENS) - A federal district court in Montana has ordered Endangered Species Act protections reinstated for about 600 grizzly bears in the three-state area surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Nearly wiped out during the 20th century, Yellowstone grizzlies were determined to have recovered in 2007, and were removed from federal protection by the Bush administration in what Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said at the time was "an amazing accomplishment."

But in a decision issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, who argued the grizzlies are still at risk, is in the right.

The court's decision was based in part on the fact that one of the bear's primary food sources, the high-fat seeds of the whitebark pine, is disappearing as a result of global warming.

Grizzly bears depend on whitebark pine seeds to prepare for hibernation each year. As a result of warmer temperatures, mountain pine beetles have begun to wipe out these trees.

Grizzly bear mother and young in Yellowstone National Park (Photo by Kim Keating courtesy USGS)

Availability of whitebark pine seeds is essential to female grizzly bear reproductive success. Because they grow in high, remote places, whitebark pine forests also serve to keep grizzly bears out of harm's way. In poor seed years, grizzlies seek food at lower elevations, encountering more people more and dying at rates two to three times higher than in good seed years.

Judge Molloy wrote in his ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's conclusion that the bears would find enough food and protected habitat in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho was not supported by the government's own science, and that protections put into place for the grizzlies were not enforceable.

"There is a disconnect between the studies the agency relies on here and its conclusions," Molloy wrote. "These studies still state that there is a connection between whitebark pine and grizzly survival."

"Where the agency's conclusions contradict the science, the conclusions are not reasonable, and the court need not defer to the agency's decision," Molloy wrote.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argued that because Yellowstone grizzly bears were omnivores, they would adapt to the loss of their key food source - the fatty seeds of whitebark pine trees," said Doug Honnold, one of the lawyers on the case.

"Because all of the science said that in the Yellowstone ecosystem whitebark pine drives grizzly bear reproductive and mortality rates, the judge rightly rejected the government's 'let them eat cake' approach to recovery," Honnold said.

After the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to remove grizzlies from the Endangered Species list in 2007, more than 40 percent of bears' range in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem received no habitat protection.

Nearly two million acres of high-quality habitat were opened to increased motorized access, more than 630,000 acres were opened for logging, and more than 850,000 acres were opened to oil and gas development.

With Judge Molloy's ruling, environmentalists hope these lands will once again be managed for protection of the bears, and the Fish and Wildlife Service will develop a new grizzly bear recovery plan that addresses the impacts of global warming.

Craig Kenworthy, conservation director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said, “We hope the Fish and Wildlife Service will go back to the drawing board and come up with a workable plan, a plan that has enforceable standards in it.

But Matt Kales, a spokesman for the Service, was noncommittal. He declined to comment on the ruling until officials had reviewed it in detail.

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal said he expects the Service to defend the grizzly delisting by appealing Molloy's ruling and by pursuing another court battle pending in Idaho.

"This is the first in what will be two decisions about grizzly bear delisting. We will want to see what the federal court in Idaho says and weigh our options accordingly," the governor said in a statement.

"To be honest, our concern up to this point was whether bear numbers in Wyoming were getting too big," said Freudenthal, who traveled with his wife Nancy into grizzly bear country this summer. "In talking to the wardens who took Nancy and me into the Thorofare, bear counts are higher than we’ve seen them for a long, long time."

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