January 2025 could be the month when years of political wrangling over the fate of Wyoming’s grizzlies could come to a head, potentially opening the door for bear hunts next fall.
A judge this month gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) until Jan. 20 to decide on Wyoming’s petition to have grizzlies delisted in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Similar petitions from Montana and Idaho are also pending and could also be ruled on by FWS that same month.
Scales Tip Even Further Toward Delisting
U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Alan Johnson issued an order setting the Jan. 20 deadline for the decision on the Wyoming petition.
Jan. 20 also is the day President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office.
Wyoming resident Rob Wallace, who oversaw the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) during Trump’s first term, previously told Cowboy Stae Daily that Trump’s return to office bodes well for grizzly delisting.
Johnson’s deadline ruling tips the scales even further in favor of delisting grizzlies, Wallace said Tuesday.
It’s just a matter of the agency coming up with a delisting plan that could stand up to any lawsuits filed to reverse it, Wallace told Cowboy State Daily.
“I think this bodes well for delisting. The Service’s decision needs to be both scientifically sound and legally sound. It’s the legal piece that has them tied up in knots,” he said.
Montana’s petition calls for grizzlies to be delisted in its portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) – which is significantly smaller than Wyoming’s portion.
Grizzlies would also be delisted in Montana’s Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. That ecosystem is centered in Glacier National Park and is thought to have about 1,000 grizzlies. The GYE grizzly population is also estimated at about 1,000 bears.
Will The Big Bears Be Hunted?
Grizzlies were delisted in 2017, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had plans in place for a fall 2018 hunting season.
But environmental and grizzly conservation groups successfully sued to have the delisting overturned before hunters got the chance to buy grizzly licenses and head into the field.
If delisting goes through in 2025 and sticks, it’s likely Wyoming would do as it did previously, and open a hunting season as soon as possible.
Idaho has the fewest grizzlies among the three states and would likely not allow hunting.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials previously told Cowboy State Daily that their agency doesn’t plan to open grizzly hunts right away if delisting goes through. Instead, FWP will probably wait for up to five years before issuing grizzly hunting tags.
Grizzlies may be hunted in Alaska and parts of Canada. In the Lower 48, they’ve been under federal endangered species protection since 1975, and no hunts have been allowed.
Being the first hunter in decades to kill a trophy-sized grizzly in the Lower 48 would be a much-sought-after prize. Some Wyoming hunters previously told Cowboy State Daily that they’d love to have that opportunity, even though they’re skeptical that delisting efforts will ever succeed.
Opponents of grizzly hunting argue that it would hurt the bears’ chances for a full and lasting recovery in the Lower 48. And they dispute the idea that hunting would make grizzlies more afraid of humans.
Proponents of hunting say that with an estimated 2,000 or more grizzlies in the Northern Rockies, hunting seasons would not threaten the overall population. And they argue that hunting would give the bears a healthy fear of humans.
High Bear Death Toll
Although grizzlies may not be hunted in the Lower 48, it is legal to kill a grizzly in self-defense. Many hunters carry sidearms for defense against grizzlies while hunting deer or elk in the backcountry.
There were several instances of hunters shooting grizzlies in self-defense this fall in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
A leading cause of death among grizzlies in the GYE in 2024 was being killed by wildlife agents after conflicts with humans.
As of Tuesday, 73 grizzlies were reported to have died or been killed in the GYE this year. That’s according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team’s bear mortality report.
Grizzlies were killed for preying on livestock, or after coming into settled areas and raiding garbage dumpsters, pet food supplies or other tempting goodies.
A large male grizzly was killed by Montana wildlife agents in July, after breaking into homes in the tiny community of Gardiner, Montana.
And in the past two years, four grizzlies have drowned after getting trapped in the concrete-lined Heart Mountain Irrigation Canal near Cody, according to the grizzly mortality report.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
