There should be a “meta-population” of grizzlies roaming freely throughout the Rockies all the way from Canada to the southern end of Yellowstone National Park, a top bear biologists said.
But with the bears likely to soon be delisted from federal endangered species protection, that vision — the brainchild of wildlife biologist Chris Servheen of Missoula, Montana — might never be realized.
Nevertheless, Servheen and a coalition of environmental organizations filed a petition Wednesday with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to completely revamp the agency’s grizzly management policy throughout Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Changed His Mind
The petition calls to upend the policies of the FWS current management plan, which Servheen himself established in 1993. He was the FWS grizzly bear recovery coordinator for 35 years prior to his retirement in 2016.
During a press briefing Tuesday, he said that the 1993 management policy is flawed and has left the Lower 48 with relatively isolated “island populations of grizzlies,” he said.
Instead, the grizzly population across the West should be fully interconnected, he said. That should include an established population of bears in Idaho’s remote and rugged Bitterroot-Selway region.
That would help establish a permanent connection between the now-separated grizzly populations in Wyoming’s Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Montana’s Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Those populations are estimated to include about 1,000 bears each.
Opposes Delisting Grizzlies
Since retiring from FWS, Servheen reversed his position on delisting grizzlies. He used to favor delisting, but now vocally opposes it.
He previously told Cowboy State Daily that heavy-handed wolf management in Montana and Idaho played a big part in pushing him to change is mind on delisting.
He repeated that message Tuesday, stating that Montana and Idaho are still aggressively trying to cut their wolf populations to a fraction of their current numbers.
If grizzlies are delisted, Wyoming would likely open a hunting season for them, which Servheen also opposes.
The Western states are still too hostile toward predators, so federal protection for grizzlies shouldn’t be lifted, he said.
“It’s basically the anti-predator attitudes of the 1800s in some peoples’ minds,” he said.
However, there are many who favor delisting grizzlies, including Wyoming’s congressional delegation.
They argue that the grizzly population has grown well past the numbers needed for recovery. And, that conflicts with humans will only increase as the bears keep pushing out of core habitat in Yellowstone and Glacier national parks and into settled areas.
But Is It Too Late?
Servheen’s vison for a grizzly meta-population and the petition calling for it might have come too late.
Grizzly delisting could be looming, maybe as soon as January.
A federal judge this month ordered FWS to decide by Jan. 20 on Wyoming’s petition to have the Greater Yellowstone grizzlies delisted.
Jan. 20 is also the day that 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.
Similar delisting petitions from Montana and Idaho are also pending with FWS, and the agency might also render decisions on them in January.
Montana’s petition calls for the Northern Continental Divide grizzlies to be delisted, while Idaho’s calls for the bears to be delisted across the Lower 48.
Delisting across the Lower 48 would not only change grizzly management in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, it could derail plans to reintroduce grizzlies to the Northern Cascades in Washington state.
FWS has had primary jurisdiction over grizzlies since they were placed under federal protection in 1975. If delisting goes through, FWS would step aside and hand management over to the states.
It Wasn’t Timed That Way
Servheen said the petition filed Wednesday with the FWS wasn’t deliberately timed to coincide with the latest movements toward delisting.
He said he’d been working on his plan for a meta-population for a year.
It’s simply coincidence that petition favoring that is being filed at the same time FWS is being pressured to decide on the states’ petitions favoring delisting, he said.
Servheen added that the states themselves should reconsider delisting and possible grizzly hunting seasons.
There’s huge public support for grizzlies, both within the Rocky Mountain region, and across the nation, he said.
Grizzlies and wolves are a huge draw for tourists, which pump big money into the Westen states’ economies, Servheen said.
“Montana, Idaho and Wyoming should be proud to be some of the few places where these magnificent animals roam,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
