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In a major victory for grizzly bears and the Endangered Species
Act, a U.S. district judge this fall struck down a federal
grizzly recovery plan that environmentalists said was seriously
flawed.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups, represented by
the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, had filed a lawsuit arguing
that the plan violated the ESA. The judge agreed, echoing the
Club's concern that the plan does not take into account the
importance of protecting the grizzly's habitat, which biologists
say is key to its recovery. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
must now reassess the plan.
"This is a terrific and precedent-setting ruling," said Jim
Angell, a lawyer for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in
Bozeman, Mont. "It asserts that recovery plans have to address
the threats that led to the animal's original listing. It will
also prevent the state of Wyoming and the Fish and Wildlife
Service from rushing to 'delist' Yellowstone's grizzlies when
they are in more danger of extinction now than they were 20 years
ago, when they were listed."
Though all grizzlies in the lower 48 states are listed as
threatened, the Fish and Wildlife service maintains that the
grizzly population in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem is
recovering and could soon be removed from the threatened species
list.
But the judge found that the methods used by the agency for
counting grizzlies are unreliable, and said its plan fails to
consider the effects of geographic and genetic isolation on the
grizzly's long-term survival.
"Though some of the major mortality sinkholes for the grizzly are
under control garbage dumps have been 'bear-proofed' and hunters
have been taught how to reduce bear encounters the government has
not done a decent job of protecting their habitat," explained
Larry Mehlhaff, regional director for the Club's Northern Plains
field office.
The judge's ruling will help slow the Fish and Wildlife Service's
campaign to take Yellowstone grizzlies off the list, say Sierra
Club leaders. In the meantime, the Club is stepping up public
education efforts in communities in Montana and Wyoming to boost
awareness of the grizzly's plight, said longtime volunteer Connie
Wilbert, a Wyoming native.
"Grizzlies need a lot of territory," she said. "But logging,
mining and other development keep chipping away at the habitat
that's left. In public meetings and press conferences, we're
going to stress the need to keep grizzlies under federal
protection and the importance of habitat to their long-term
survival."
In a separate decision, the judge ruled that the government's
refusal to change the status of two isolated grizzly populations
in Montana, Idaho and Washington from threatened to endangered
was illegal.
For more information: Contact Larry Mehlhaff at (307) 672-0425.
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