Fifteen national, regional and state environmental, tribal, and animal welfare groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month to adopt a new approach to recovering grizzly bears in the West.

It asks the Fish and Wildlife Service to look at grizzly bear populations holistically, rather than by regions, which is done now. For example, grizzly bears in this area are part of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, while bears in Yellowstone are part of that ecosystem. They are largely managed separately.

Grizzly bears have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1975. Since then, numbers have rebounded from about 150 bears to about 1,700 animals in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, but most of the bears live in Northwest Montana, where there’s more than 1,000.

Earthjustice, which spearheaded the effort, argues that the grizzly bear population should be looked at in a much broader view. For example, the Selway-Bitterroot Ecosystem in southwest Montana has almost no grizzly bears, but plenty of land to support them

In addition, there are problems with connectivity between ecosystems, as humans cut up the landscape with roads, subdivisions and other developments. The groups argue that genetic connectivity is compromised.

“To achieve full recovery, the Service now needs to revise its management of the Northern Rockies’ grizzly bears as ‘island populations [that] are subject to high rates of extinction,’ and require the establishment of a naturally connected metapopulation of grizzly bears within the Northern Rocky Mountains,” the petition states.

The petition is based on a report by Christopher Servheen, the former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, who served from 1981 to 2016. The petition comes about a month ahead of the USFWS’ deadline to make a decision on delisting the bears. 

“The grizzly bears in the Northern U.S. Rockies live in only 4% of their former range in the lower 48 states,” Servheen said. “Grizzly presence is part of what makes this part of America so special. We should choose a careful management approach that will assure the future for these magnificent animals because they are an important part of the heritage of the American West.” 

The groups point to high mortality in the Yellowstone Ecosystem this year as cause for concern (The mortality in the NCDE was actually the lowest in years this year, see related story).

Seventy-three grizzly bears were killed in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 2024.

The petition calls for several courses of action, including:

• A switch from management of the Northern Rockies bears in five distinct and isolated populations to a single, interconnected metapopulation of grizzlies across the region;

• New protections for grizzlies against potentially lethal human activities including changing wolf trapping and hunting regulations to ensure bears aren’t also killed. For example, it calls for changing wolf trapping regulations to prohibit snares except for 6 weeks from Jan. 1 to Feb. 15, when most bears are denned and to prohibit hunting and trapping near bait except in that six-week window as well.

• Protections for grizzly habitat and careful mortality management in connectivity areas between ecosystems;

• Policies that reduce human/bear conflicts through increasing resources and assistance for communities;

• Reliable commitments from state and federal agencies to maintain grizzly and habitat protections after delisting. 

But such a petition faces political headwinds. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the Presidency, there is the possibility that bears, just like wolves before them, will be delisted from the ESA legislatively.

Both Montana Sen.Steve Daines and Congressman Ryan Zinke have introduced legislation to delist grizzly bears in the Yellowstone Ecosystem in the past four years.

Wolves were delisted in Montana and Idaho in 2011 and later delisted in Wyoming as well. The initial legislation was a rider on a budget bill and was supported by Montana’s Congressional delegation at the time, which included Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, both Democrats. It was signed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat as well.