Montana, Wyoming, Idaho prepare for return of grizzly hunts
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Hunters soon could be chasing grizzly bears across the ridges of the Rocky Mountains, leaving three states to drum up plans to ensure the iconic species won't be snuffed out soon after recovering from threats to their survival.
The Obama administration in March proposed lifting protections for the more than 700 grizzlies around Yellowstone National Park. The bears have been considered a threatened species since 1975, but federal wildlife officials say that population has sufficiently recovered to turn over management to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service makes a final decision by March 2017, it is requiring those states to outline what their grizzly hunting seasons would look like. The states came up with a coordinated plan late last year to guide their individual proposals, including reviewing the bear population each year, stopping hunting if the grizzlies' overall numbers drop below 600 and banning hunting of female bears with their young.
"This is a historic undertaking because we don't manage any other species like this," Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Gregg Losinski said.
Wyoming's Fish and Game Commission approved its grizzly management plan Wednesday, and Montana will release its first draft of what a hunting season would look like Thursday for public comment. Idaho officials plan to discuss the matter next week.
The scrutiny is intense, with wildlife advocates insisting the bear population is still too fragile for hunting and that federal officials reverse course before it's too late.
One advocacy group, Defenders of Wildlife, is worried the federal government is moving too quickly and with incomplete information. It should delay making a final decision until the states' plans to manage the species have been completed and fully vetted, said Jamie Rappaport Clark, the organization's president and CEO who was a former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
"All the work of bringing back the grizzly bear from the brink of extinction should not go up in smoke because the game plan is substandard," she said.
The plan is being created now because federal wildlife officials are requiring one, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Director Jeff Hagener said Wednesday.
"This doesn't mean that automatically we're going to start hunting grizzly bears as soon as they're de-listed," he said.
The three states use hunting and trapping to manage wildlife populations from elk to wolves, setting quotas with the aim of preventing overpopulation that could harm habitat and lead to conflicts with people and livestock. Charging hunters and trappers for licenses also provides a major revenue source for state wildlife agencies.
For grizzlies, the actual quota available for each state's hunt would vary from year to year, depending on the previous year's bear deaths. The three states have apportioned the bears that could be hunted according to their share of the Yellowstone area: Wyoming with 58 percent, Montana with 34 percent and Idaho with 8 percent.
Montana officials estimated their number would be less than 10 bears in most years.
Outside the Yellowstone area, other grizzly populations in Montana, Idaho and Washington state will remain protected. The grizzlies' Alaska cousin, the brown bear, is not considered a threatened or endangered species and is hunted regularly.