Groups sue federal agency after grizzly death

Four environmental groups are asking a federal judge to order the temporary shutdown of a sheep research station on the Idaho-Montana border they say is harming the region’s grizzly bear population.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Boise against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency operates the Sheep Experiment Station in the Centennial Mountain Range.

Lawyers for the environmental groups say sheep grazing and other activities at the station are jeopardizing the Yellowstone grizzly population. The lawsuit comes after the groups investigated the disappearance of a collared grizzly bear last fall.

They say documents obtained in a public records request show other grizzly bear mortality near the station in the last eight years.

The station was established in 1918 for breeding and grazing research.