House Republicans renew fight against Yellowstone grizzly protections

Joe Dobson

WASHINGTON (CN) — The House Committee on Natural Resources considered a bill Tuesday from U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman that would remove Endangered Species Act protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears and shield the delisting from judicial review.

The Wyoming Republican's proposed legislation directs the Secretary of the Interior to reissue a final rule from the first term of the Donald Trump presidency that eliminated federal safeguards for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population of grizzly bears. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen, a Barack Obama appointee based out of Montana, vacated the rule in 2018, calling the decision arbitrary and capricious.

Hageman criticized the ruling in a Committee on Natural Resources meeting while advocating for her bill. The Republicans attempted to pass the legislation in 2024, but it failed to reach the House floor.

"Such delisting would have stuck, except for the actions of radical environmental organizations and activist judges," Hageman said.

The proposed bill explicitly prohibits judicial review. Bradley Williams, deputy legislative director for Wildlife and Lands Protection at the Sierra Club, said it appears Hageman is attempting to circumvent checks and balances.

"Yeah, it's definitely not normal," Williams said about the provision in an interview. "I think that's an important tool in the toolkit of the federal government to allow for traditional review and allow for things to be questioned by outside stakeholders, so that the best available science is being followed, the best decisions are being made, regardless of the current political makeup of an administration or Congress, for that matter."

Hageman argued that the population is due for delisting as the bears have surpassed their recovery goal of 500 established in 1975. The population grew to over 1,000 in 2023.

"The grizzly is, in fact, the poster child for how the ESA has failed in terms of what it was intended to do and how it has been implemented," Hageman said. "While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been successful at listing species, delisting, as per the statute, has been an exercise in futility regardless of whether a particular species has recovered or not."

Williams said that the initial goal is outdated. Williams said the focus should be on connecting the five recovery zones in the lower 48 states.

"We've learned a lot more about grizzly bears since then, and how their populations need to be at certain levels to continue to thrive and continue to grow and be in a safe place where they won't be back to the levels of endangerment, and a big part of that is habitat connectivity," Williams said. "We're seeing some success with the recovery of these bears, which is why they need to remain listed, so that they can continue to have these protections."

Before the arrival of Europeans, grizzly bears were estimated to number around 50,000 in a continuous area spanning from Mexico to Alaska. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the population in the lower-48 states dropped as low as 700 in 1975.

Hageman told the committee that the states should handle the conservation of the species rather than expending federal resources. Hageman pointed to a rise in bear attacks on humans and livestock, along with the impact the increased population has on other species, as reasons for the delisting.

"Keeping the status quo in place and depriving Wyoming of the ability to manage the species as part of the broader ecosystem will only continue to exacerbate numerous issues we have experienced with the unchecked and growing bear population," Hageman said. "

Williams said it was more likely lightning would strike someone than a grizzly bear kill them. According to Williams, some states' idea of conservation management includes predator hunting rules that could jeopardize the bears.

"We're seeing a lot of efforts from states to, if it were to be turned over to states, manage them to a number that would be the bare minimum, not a recovery number," Williams said.

California Democrat Jared Huffman opposed the effort.

"The bill clearly places partisan politics over science-based management decisions," the ranking member said. "Reinstating the outdated 2017 delisting rule could actually put the grizzly bear back on the road toward extinction, which none of us should want to see."

Huffman expressed his displeasure with the Republican members' assertion that funds are wasted on the grizzly bears' recovery effort that could be used to protect species closer to extinction.

"My colleagues across the aisle are slashing all of those budgets and actually supporting efforts by the administration to gut all the personnel that manage those and other programs," Huffman said before posing a question to Hageman. "Would you consider an amendment where the cost savings from your bill get redirected into finally plussing up ESA recovery, staffing and other programs so that you put some meaning behind this assurance that that's what you want to see?"

Hageman answered that if Wyoming allowed hunters to hunt grizzly bears, it would free up resources for other species.

The bill mirrors a similar effort introduced by Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado to delist gray wolves. Chairman Bruce Westerman of Arkansas used the meeting to vent his frustration with the Endangered Species Act.

"The Endangered Species Act is like 'Hotel California,' once you get on the list, it's almost impossible to get off," Westerman said. "It's one person that's upending all the work, all the efforts, really upending the spirit of the Endangered Species Act because they have their own agenda."

In the final days of his administration, President Joe Biden issued a rule rejecting petitions from several states, including Wyoming, to delist the population. The population survived another challenge to its threatened status in 2009 when a federal judge overturned the delisting due to the government's failure to consider the impact of the decline of whitebark pine, a crucial food source for grizzly bears.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population is one of five that the federal government has designated as recovery areas. The area includes parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.