Grizzly comment period extended

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday said it is extending the comment period on its proposed rule to revise the listing of the grizzly bear in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act.

"We are extending the comment period for the proposed rule to give all interested parties adequate opportunity to comment," according to the USFWS.

Comments will be accepted until May 16. 

The bears have been protected as a threatened species across the lower 48 states since 1975. Officials during President Donald Trump’s first term sought to eliminate those protections but were blocked in court.

Republican officials in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service beginning in 2021 seeking to reclaim state management of the grizzly population. That would have opened the door to public hunts, although state officials said they would be limited and not endanger the overall population, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Forest Service reported that about 35-40 grizzly bears reside in the Selkirk Mountains with another 30-40 occupying the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem of Idaho and Montana.

"We’re starting to see reports trickle in of grizzly bears returning to the landscape after their winter hibernation, but the political world they are waking into — and the stability of their protections — is very different than when they entered their dens last fall," according to Earthjustice.

Earthjustice said key among their recommendations will be to urge the USFWS to retain grizzly bears’ “threatened” status, expand the Distinct Population Segment boundaries, and revise the proposed rule as written because it permits increased grizzly bear mortality under the guise of conflict management. 

There are about 2,000 grizzly bears in four Rocky Mountain states.

To comment: www.regulations.gov