The state of Wyoming has filed a notice of appeal on a federal judge’s decision earlier this year to restore federal protections for the population of grizzly bears that lives in and around Yellowstone National Park.
The three-page notice of appeal was filed a little more than two months after U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred in removing Endangered Species Act protections from the Yellowstone bears in 2017, siding with the environmental groups and Native American tribes that challenged the decision. The move blocked planned grizzly hunts in Wyoming and Idaho.
Wyoming is an intervenor in the case. An appeal would take it to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was not immediately available for comment. A Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The groups who fought to restore protections for the animals are ready to fight the appeal, said Andrea Santarsiere, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Wyoming’s appeal of the court’s decision to restore protections for Yellowstone’s beloved bears is just wrong,” Santarsiere said in an emailed statement.
“We’ll fight to ensure these amazing bears retain the safeguards they need to fully recover.”
Grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states were first listed as threatened in 1975. At the time, the number of bears in Yellowstone was estimated at fewer than 150. Now, the population is estimated at approximately 700.
Federal and state officials argued that improvement represented a full recovery, and that it was enough to justify delisting and allowing hunts. Wyoming and Idaho both planned hunting seasons that would have allowed the take of up to 23 bears this year. Montana did not plan a hunt.
But delisting opponents argued the bears still faced threats from climate change and changing food sources. They also argued that the Fish and Wildlife Service erred in delisting one portion of the Lower 48 grizzly bear population without seeing full recovery of the others.
