YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — On May 25, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) authorization of the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears on public land outside of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) violated federal law.
On Oct. 11, 2019, the United States Forest Service (USFS) signed the Record of Decision for the Upper Green River Area Rangeland Project, a 170,643-acre project area including the headwaters of the Green and Gros Ventre rivers and parts of two designated wilderness areas in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
USFWS had given a biological opinion to the USFS prior to the Decision that the effects of livestock grazing were not likely to jeopardize grizzly bear populations, and so the USFS authorized the killing of up to 72 grizzly bears over the 10-year life of the reauthorized grazing program. The Decision placed no limits on killing female bears or cubs.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project (WWP), Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection filed two separate suits on March 31, 2020, challenging the Decision. Petitioners argued that the USFWS’s 2019 biological opinion violates the Endangered Species Act, since grizzly bears are currently still listed under federal protections.
The court has now returned the Decision to the agencies to fix what are claimed as “legal deficiencies” by the petitioners, finding the USFWS’s decision to be jeopardizing the grizzly bear population in the project area.
“Today’s decision is a victory not only for endangered grizzly bears but for all wildlife in the Upper Green River Area,” said Megan Backsen, Tenth Circuit attorney for WWP. “The Court recognized that the Forest Service cannot ignore its own experts, particularly when those experts warn that a decision will harm those species that depend on intact ecosystems for their very survival.”
The U.S. District Court of Wyoming had issued a ruling upholding the agencies’ Decision on May 17, 2022, but today’s opinion overturns that decision.
