Grizzly bear hunt still up in the air

Hunters ready for the first grizzly bear hunt in more than 40 years will have to wait. A federal judge in Montana put a 14-day restraining order yesterday on the grizzly bear hunt in Idaho and Wyoming.

Grizzly bears became protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Last year, U.S. Fish and Wildlife removed the bears from the list, saying the population has recovered. Idaho and Wyoming were going to hold their first grizzly hunts starting tomorrow, until the stay was issued to take a closer look at how the species overall would be effected. One environmental educator says the grizzly bear hunt issue has gone from science to emotion.

“If you look at the science of it, the bears are at the point of recovery particularly the Yellowstone Ecosystem and they need to be managed” said Gregg Losinski, a human/bear conflict expert. “But there’s lots of folks out there that have an emotional tie to bears and so that’s the problem we’re getting into is emotion versus science. And science says it’s time to move on, emotion says no let’s not do that.”

One environmental lawyer representing the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, which opposes the hunt, says de-listing the grizzly bear population is illegal. He also says they’ve seen record levels of bears dying because of conflicts with humans over the past four years, with 2018 being the most lethal year so far.

“This is all occurring against a back drop where its not like there’s a whole bunch of population growth to offset these grizzly bear deaths” said attorney Tim Preso. “And now the states of Wyoming and Idaho were talking about adding 23 more trophy hunt deaths to the pile. We have a pretty serious concern about an unsustainable level of grizzly bear mortality that will threaten to push the population into a decline and that’s not a very legitimate picture of recovery.”

However, bear experts say not allowing the hunt will not increase bear numbers.They say management is the only way to increase the population.

“The reason for that is that the habitat that’s available is basically filled,” Losinski said. “And you can want to protect the bear from hunting and you’re still going to have mortality. The issue is that we need to make it work for both people and bears. And hunting is a way in which you allow the bears to be managed by people so they feel better about the bears so the bears can expand habitat.”

Those opposed to the hunt say that attention brought to grizzlies is important for other endangered species.

“When we talk about something like Yellowstone and grizzly bears, it’s the most attention that any endangered species issue will get,” Preso said. “It’s important to get the rules right in a situation like that because no other wildlife species will get that attention. Wherever the bar is set for Yellowstone grizzlies its only downhill from there for everything else so it’s important to get this right.”

There are about 700 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Wyoming approved tags for 22 bears while Idaho only has one tag. Montana decided not to participate. The hunt was supposed to start tomorrow.