US, Wyoming urge rejection of ruling that blocked bear hunts
FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2013, file photo, a grizzly bear cub eats apples in a tree a few miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont. Wyoming and U.S. officials are urging an appeals court to reverse much of a judge’s ruling that blocked state-sponsored hunting of the animals. (Alan Rogers/The Casper Star-Tribune via AP, File)
Ruling means federal wildlife officials will have to do more to justify their proposal to lift protections for bears
BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal appeals court said Wednesday that a judge was correct to restore protections for about 700 grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region of the Rocky Mountains, after federal officials sought to turn over management of the animals to states that would have allowed them to be hunted.
The ruling means federal wildlife officials will have to do more to justify their proposal to lift protections for bears in portions of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho that include Yellowstone National Park.
However, the appeals court said the judge should not have required a comprehensive review of grizzly bears across their entire range in the Lower 48 states in order to lift protections for Yellowstone bears.
The ruling from a three-judge panel with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came after proposals to hunt grizzlies in Wyoming and Idaho were blocked in 2018 by U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen.
Federal officials had stripped away their protections and hunting was about to begin when Christensen intervened.