U.S. government attorneys filed notice recently that they are appealing a court ruling that blocked the first public hunts of grizzly bears in the Northern Rockies in decades.

The appeal challenges a judge’s ruling that restored threatened species protections for more than 700 bears in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Protections for the animals had been removed in 2017. When the ruling from U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen came down in October, Wyoming and Idaho were on the cusp of hosting their first public hunts for grizzly bears in the Lower 48 U.S. states since 1991.

Federal biologists contend Yellowstone-area grizzlies have made a full recovery after a decades-long restoration effort. They want to turn over management of the animals to state wildlife agencies that say hunting is one way to better address rising numbers of bear attacks on livestock.

But wildlife advocates and the Crow Indian Tribe successfully sued to stop the hunts. Their attorneys persuaded Christensen that despite the recovery of bears in Yellowstone, the species remains in peril elsewhere because of continued threats from climate change and habitat loss.

The Yellowstone population has rebounded from just 136 animals when they were granted federal protections in 1975.

Grizzlies in recent years have returned to many areas where they were absent for decades.

That has meant more dangerous run-ins with people, such as a Wyoming hunting guide who was killed this fall in a grizzly attack.

Christensen’s ruling marked the second time the government has sought to lift protections for Yellowstone bears only to be reversed in court.

The agency initially declared a successful recovery for the Yellowstone population in 2007. But a federal judge ordered protections to remain while wildlife officials studied whether the decline of a major food source — whitebark pine seeds — could threaten the bears’ survival.

The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded last year it had addressed that and all other threats.

There was speculation the agency would not appeal the latest ruling and instead draft a new proposal to get the animal off the threatened list.

That possibility was raised by the agency’s grizzly bear recovery coordinator during a meeting last month with Wyoming state lawmakers, according to the Powell Tribune.

Friday’s appeal signals that at least for now the court battle over grizzlies will grind on.

But Andrea Santarsiere with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the case before Christensen, said the government still has the option in coming months to dismiss the case.

“I think Fish and Wildlife should go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan to actually recover grizzly bears across the West, rather than a piecemeal approach,” she said.

Also pending before the 9th Circuit are appeals from parties that intervened on behalf of the Fish and Wildlife Service. They include the states of Idaho and Wyoming and groups representing hunting interests, gun rights and agriculture.

Cody Wisniewski with the Mountain States Legal Foundation said that if allowed to stand, Christensen’s ruling could make it harder for other species to be taken off the threatened and endangered species list.

“Opinions like this move the goalposts,” he said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Strickland referred questions about the case to the Department of Justice, which did not provide an on-the-record comment.

The Trump administration moved forward Thursday with plans to ease restrictions on oil and natural gas drilling and other activities across millions of acres in the American West that were put in place to protect an imperiled bird species.

Land management documents released by the U.S. Interior Department show the administration intends to open more public lands to leasing and allow waivers for drilling to encroach into the habitat of greater sage grouse.

Critics warned the changes could wipe out grouse colonies as drilling disrupts breeding grounds. Federal officials under President Barack Obama in 2015 had adopted a sweeping set of land use restrictions intended to benefit the birds.

Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt said the agency was responding to requests by states to give them more flexibility in how public lands are managed. He said the goal to conserve sage grouse was unchanged.

“I completely believe that these plans are leaning forward on the conservation of sage grouse,” Bernhardt told The Associated Press. “Do they do it in exactly the same way, no? We made some change in the plans and got rid of some things that are simply not necessary.”

The changes drew a sharp backlash from conservation groups and wildlife advocates, who warned excessive use of drilling waivers could push the birds onto the endangered species list.

“If you allow exception after exception, that might make sense for a particular project in a particular spot, but you add them all together and you have death by a thousand cuts,” said National Wildlife Association vice president Tracy Stone-Manning.

The ground-dwelling grouse ranges across about 270,000 square miles in parts of 11 Western U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Its numbers have plummeted in recent decades.

Under President Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has vowed to lift obstacles to drilling, and grouse protections have long been viewed by the energy industry as an obstacle to development.

Sage grouse are large, ground-dwelling birds known for an elaborate mating ritual in which males strut around breeding grounds with large, puffed-out air sacs protruding from their chests.

They once numbered in the millions. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now estimates the population at 200,000 to 500,000. Energy development, disease and other causes have decimated populations in some areas.

The Trump administration’s proposal would reverse or modify the Obama-era protections in seven states — Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, California, Idaho and Oregon.

The oil and gas industry chafed at the old rules. Once Trump took office, industry representatives pushed the administration to give more recognition to changes in drilling practices that reduce how much land is disturbed for wells.

“We can do both — protect sage grouse and move forward with responsible energy development,” said Kathleen Sgamma with the Western Energy Alliance, which represents more than 300 oil and gas companies. “We’ve reduced the size of well pads, reduced the numbers of wells. And we had done all these things and the prior administration assumed development was taking place like it was 20 years ago.

Governors from several western states previously raised concerns over a related federal directive that would limit a type of land swap that can be used to preserve habitat for the birds.

Following Thursday’s release of environmental studies analyzing the changes in each state, governors and the public get another chance to weigh in before a final decision is expected in early 2019.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A new superintendent was named Wednesday to Yellowstone National Park, one of the crown jewels of the park system, after his predecessor said he was being forced out by the Trump administration following a dispute over bison.

Cameron “Cam” Sholly will replace Dan Wenk, who has been superintendent since 2011, according to the Department of Interior.

Wenk planned to retire next March but was told last week he would be gone by August. He said his ouster followed disagreements with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke over the size of the park’s world-famous bison herds.

Ranchers and state livestock officials in neighboring Montana, where Zinke served as a U.S. representative before he became Interior secretary, have long pushed to reduce the size of the herds because of concerns over the disease brucellosis. About half of Yellowstone’s bison test positive for the disease, which can cause animals to prematurely abort their young.

Park biologists contend the population of more than 4,000 bison is sustainable. But Zinke and his staff have said the number is too high, Wenk said, and have raised concerns that Yellowstone’s scenic Lamar Valley is being damaged by overgrazing.

The Interior Department has not commented on Wenk’s claims.

Sholly served as Midwest regional director for the park service since 2015, where he was involved in reintroducing wolves to Isle Royale National Park, oversaw a $380 million renovation of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and worked to improve relations with American Indian tribes, according to the Interior Department.

Sholly could not be reached immediately for comment. In a statement put out by the Interior Department, he said he was honored to have the chance to work at Yellowstone, established in 1872 as the first national park.

Yellowstone covers 3,400 square miles straddling the borders of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Its erupting geysers, cascading waterfalls and abundant wildlife attract tourists from around the world.

More than 4 million people visited in each of the past three years and last month was the park’s busiest May on record. That’s put an increasing strain on its natural resources and led to frequent conflicts between people and wildlife, including visitors injured by grizzly bears, bison, elk and other animals.

Sholly is a third-generation park service employee and went to high school just north of Yellowstone in Gardiner, Montana, when his father was assigned to Yellowstone, said Alex Picavet, chief of communications for the park service’s Midwest region.

His first job for the park service was in Yellowstone in 1990, as a seasonal worker in the park’s maintenance division, Picavet said. Sholly, an Army veteran who was deployed to the Gulf War, later served as chief of ranger operations for Yosemite National Park and superintendent of Natchez Trace Parkway, a scenic byway that runs through Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

Wenk said in a recent interview that Sholly would be a “really good fit for Yellowstone” given his variety of experiences in the park service.

At Yellowstone, he’ll oversee an 800-person staff and an annual budget of more than $60 million.

“The Midwest region is very sad to have him leave,” Picavet said. “He’s a strong leader who has brought amazing change and opportunity to the Midwest region.”

Sholly’s start date is yet to be determined, said Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent said Thursday that he’s being forced out as a “punitive action” following disagreements with the Trump administration over how many bison the park can sustain, a longstanding source of conflict between park officials and ranchers in neighboring Montana.

Superintendent Dan Wenk announced last week that he intended to retire March 30, 2019, after being offered a transfer he didn’t want. He said he was informed this week by National Park Service Acting Director Paul “Dan” Smith that a new superintendent will be in place in August and that Wenk will be gone by then.

“I feel this is a punitive action, but I don’t know for sure,” Wenk told The Associated Press.

He wasn’t given a reason and said the only dispute he’s had with U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who oversees the park service, was over bison.

Ranchers in neighboring Montana have long sought reductions in Yellowstone’s bison numbers because of worries that they could spread the disease brucellosis to cattle and compete with livestock for grazing space outside the park. Brucellosis causes animals to prematurely abort their young and can be transmitted through birthing material. It also can infect people.

Park biologists contend the population of more than 4,000 bison is sustainable. But Zinke and his staff have said the number is too high, Wenk said, and raised concerns that Yellowstone’s scenic Lamar Valley is being damaged by overgrazing.

Zinke, a former Montana congressman, has paid close attention to projects back home, stirring speculation that he has future political ambitions in the state.

Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift declined to comment directly on Wenk’s assertions or the issue of bison management. She referred the AP to a previously issued statement saying President Donald Trump had ordered a reorganization of the federal government and that Zinke “has been absolutely out front on that issue.”

Wenk said he had multiple conversations with Zinke and his staff about bison, most recently this week.

“We’re not a livestock operation. We’re managing a national park with natural systems,” he said. “We do not believe the bison population level is too high or that any scientific studies would substantiate that.”

The livestock industry wants Yellowstone’s bison herds reduced to 3,000 animals, a population target specified in a 2000 agreement between Montana and the federal government. Montana Stockgrowers Association interim vice president Jay Bodner said Zinke “understands the issues around bison, not only in the park but how that impacts the livestock issue.”

Wildlife advocates who want changes to the 2000 agreement expressed dismay at Wenk’s ouster.

Thousands of park bison were shipped to slaughter during his tenure to keep the population in check. Wenk sought to curtail the killings with fledgling efforts to transfer surplus bison to American Indian tribes and expanding where the animals are tolerated in Montana.

“We’d hate to set the rug get pulled out from under that with a change in leadership,” said Caroline Byrd with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Wenk has spent more than four decades with the National Park Service and seven years in Yellowstone. When he initially announced his retirement, he said he didn’t view his proposed transfer to the Washington, D.C., area as political.

A recent investigation into 35 personnel reassignments proposed in the Interior Department under Zinke revealed that 16 senior employees viewed their moves as political retribution or punishment for their work on climate change, energy or conservation. However, the Interior Department inspector general was not able to determine if anything illegal occurred because agency leaders did not document their rationale for the moves.

Yellowstone straddles the borders of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho and was established in the 1872 as the first national park. Under Wenk, it has struggled with a sexual harassment scandal that echoed problems in other national parks and prompted personnel changes in some instances.

Members of Yellowstone’s maintenance department were disciplined last year after an investigation found female employees faced sexual harassment and other problems.

Wenk said those problems never were brought up in the discussions about his possible transfer or retirement.

National Park Service Midwest Region director Cam Sholly will be installed as the new superintendent, Wenk said. Sholly is a Gulf War veteran and former member of the California Highway Patrol who previously served as chief ranger of Yosemite National Park.

Jonathan Jarvis, head of the park service under President Barack Obama, described Sholly as a strong leader and good choice to replace Wenk. But Jarvis said Zinke and his team would have an expectation of loyalty from Sholly that they could not get from someone such as Wenk, who already had the post when Trump took office.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MatthewBrownAP .

BILLINGS — A government wildlife worker who recently landed her dream job researching grizzly bears in a Montana mountain range is recovering from a bear attack that left her with a fractured skull and other serious injuries.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seasonal field assistant Amber Kornak was attacked on May 17 while working alone near a stream in the Cabinet Mountains, agency spokeswoman Jennifer Strickland said.

While being mauled, the 28-year-old Kornak managed to reach a canister of Mace-like bear spray and ended the attack, inadvertently spraying herself in the process.

She then walked to her work vehicle and drove to find help, according to Strickland.

Working with grizzlies had been a longstanding career goal for Kornak, who is recovering at a hospital in Kalispell following surgery for the skull injury and from severe cuts to her head, neck and back, said Jenna Hemer, a friend who spoke with Kornak following the attack.

“She’s obviously passionate about all wildlife, but her dream and her primary focus was to work with grizzly bears,” Hemer said. “Last I spoke with her was yesterday and she’s making great strides but it’s going to be a long recovery.”

Kornak was working at the time of the attack on a genetic study that requires collecting grizzly hair samples. The hairs can be found on trees or other objects that grizzlies rub against, and are used to analyze the animals’ DNA.

Officials speculated that noise from nearby Poorman Creek may have allowed the animal to close in on Kornak without her noticing.

She was apparently following the right protocols for working in grizzly bear country, including carrying bear spray and a satellite communication device that she used to call 911 just after the mauling, Strickland said.

There is no formal rule about government workers travelling alone in bear country, Strickland said. But experts say traveling in groups of three or more dramatically decreases the chance of an attack.

The Cabinet Mountains are home to an estimated 50 grizzlies, protected across the region as a threatened species under federal law. The range also has black bears, typically a less aggressive species.

Officials have not said which type was responsible for the attack that remains under investigation by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

BILLINGS, Montana — A pair of lawsuits filed Monday target the Trump administration’s sale of oil and gas leases on huge swaths of Western public lands that contain crucial habitat for an imperiled bird.

Wildlife advocates asked courts to reverse lease sales on more than 1,300 square miles of land in Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, according to attorneys involved.

The legal actions also sought to block several upcoming sales unless the U.S. Interior Department conducts further environmental reviews. Those leases would total more than 1,800 square miles in the four states plus Idaho.

Many of the parcels in dispute are home to greater sage grouse, a chicken-sized, ground-dwelling bird that ranges across portions of 11 Western states.

Greater sage grouse populations drastically declined in recent decades, because of energy development that broke up the bird’s habitat, along with disease, livestock grazing and other causes. Its population once numbered in the millions but had fallen to fewer than 500,000 by 2015, according to wildlife officials.

Under former President Barack Obama, the Interior Department delayed lease sales on millions of acres of public lands largely because of sage grouse worries. In 2015, it adopted a set of wide-ranging plans meant to protect the best grouse habitat and keep the bird off the endangered species list.

Trump’s Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has placed a greater priority on energy development, including directives from the agency that modified restrictions imposed by the Obama administration.

Attorneys behind Monday’s lawsuits argued those modifications were improper and that Zinke’s agency unlawfully limited environmental reviews of lease sales.

“They are indiscriminately leasing everything that’s nominated in sage grouse habitat, without any determination beforehand that maybe these areas are particularly important” to the bird, said Michael Saul, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity

Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined comment on the matter.

Energy industry representatives have been strongly supportive of Zinke’s pro-energy agenda. They point out that even when land is leased for drilling, companies must abide by limitations on when they can drill to avoid disrupting grouse during breeding season.

“We realize there are some hoops we’re going to have to jump through if we’re going to develop the resource,” said Alan Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association.

Monday’s lawsuits included one in Idaho filed by Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project, and another in Montana by the Montana Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, National Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation.

Also Monday, environmentalists agreed to a truce in a third lawsuit over protections for the Gunnison sage grouse, a smaller cousin of the greater sage grouse.

The Gunnison grouse, found only in Colorado and Utah, was designated a threatened species in 2014. Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project sued the federal government the next year, saying the Gunnison grouse should be classified endangered, meaning it is in greater danger and warrants stronger protections than a threatened species.

The two groups said they would put the lawsuit on hold after federal officials agreed to come up with a recovery plan for the bird within 2 1/2 years.

The deadline guarantees the recovery plan won’t drag out for years, the groups said. They could resume their lawsuit if the government misses the deadline, or if they are unhappy with the recovery plan.

Only about 5,000 Gunnison sage grouse were left in 2014.

Associated Press writer Dan Elliott contributed to this story from Denver.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A senior official at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law with his involvement in awarding $324,000 in conservation grants to a nonprofit where his wife worked as a contractor, according to federal investigators.

As chief of the agency’s international conservation division, Richard Ruggiero made a series of grant awards and extensions to the International Fund for Animal Welfare beginning in 2014, according to a report from the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The awards improperly benefited Ruggiero’s wife, Heather Eves, a wildlife biologist who was paid $5,600 by the nonprofit for training she conducted as part of the grants. A second group paid more than $14,000 to Eves for training under the program, investigators concluded.

Ruggiero’s involvement in the grant violated a federal law that prohibits government employees from participating in an official capacity in matters that could financially benefit them or their direct family, the report said.

He’s been placed on administrative leave pending disciplinary action, Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Wednesday.

Ruggiero and Eves could not be reached immediately for comment.

The results of the investigation were given to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, where the Fish and Wildlife Service is headquartered, but prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.

The investigation into Ruggiero began last June, about two months after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered a review of all Interior Department grants worth more than $100,000.

Zinke said in a statement that the report issued by the inspector general “identified exactly the kind of mismanagement and tax dollar abuse I have been concerned about.”

Ruggiero did not directly participate in the panel review process that led up to the initial grant award to the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2014. But he approved a $30,000 modification to the agreement in 2015, even though he later denied any involvement when confronted by investigators.

Ruggiero eventually admitted he knew it was wrong to approve the agreement, the report said. However, he denied that his wife had financially benefited, claiming she ultimately lost money on the training program due to travel expenses and unpaid volunteer work she contributed.

A representative of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Alex Osorio, said the group had cooperated fully with investigators but was not itself a subject of the probe.

Osorio said the group valued its relationship with the Fish and Wildlife Service “and is committed to ensuring that our interactions are conducted with integrity, transparency and adhere to high ethical standards.”

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A senior official at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law with his involvement in awarding $324,000 in conservation grants to a nonprofit where his wife worked as a contractor, according to federal investigators.

As chief of the agency’s international conservation division, Richard Ruggiero made a series of grant awards and extensions to the International Fund for Animal Welfare beginning in 2014, according to a report from the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The awards improperly benefited Ruggiero’s wife, Heather Eves, a wildlife biologist who was paid $5,600 by the nonprofit for training she conducted as part of the grants. A second group paid more than $14,000 to Eves for training under the program, investigators concluded.

Ruggiero’s involvement in the grant violated a federal law that prohibits government employees from participating in an official capacity in matters that could financially benefit them or their direct family, the report said.

He’s been placed on administrative leave pending disciplinary action, Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Wednesday.

Ruggiero and Eves could not be reached immediately for comment.

The results of the investigation were given to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, where the Fish and Wildlife Service is headquartered, but prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.

The investigation into Ruggiero began last June, about two months after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered a review of all Interior Department grants worth more than $100,000.

Zinke said in a statement that the report issued by the inspector general “identified exactly the kind of mismanagement and tax dollar abuse I have been concerned about.”

Ruggiero did not directly participate in the panel review process that led up to the initial grant award to the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2014. But he approved a $30,000 modification to the agreement in 2015, even though he later denied any involvement when confronted by investigators.

Ruggiero eventually admitted he knew it was wrong to approve the agreement, the report said. However, he denied that his wife had financially benefited, claiming she ultimately lost money on the training program due to travel expenses and unpaid volunteer work she contributed.

A representative of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Alex Osorio, said the group had cooperated fully with investigators but was not itself a subject of the probe.

Osorio said the group valued its relationship with the Fish and Wildlife Service “and is committed to ensuring that our interactions are conducted with integrity, transparency and adhere to high ethical standards.”

BILLINGS, Montana — A federal judge has ordered U.S. wildlife officials to reconsider a 2015 decision that blocked special protections for the iconic bison herds that roam Yellowstone National Park and are routinely subjected to hunting and slaughter.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in a ruling late Wednesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not “simply pick and choose” between conflicting science, after the agency rejected a study suggesting the park’s bison population might be too small to sustain its two herds.

Yellowstone’s 5,000 bison make up the largest remaining wild population of a species that once numbered in the tens of millions.

The animals, also called buffalo, are captured and slaughtered by state and federal agencies and killed by hunters during their winter migrations outside the park into Montana.

Wildlife managers expect to cull between 600 and 900 of the animals this winter, under a program intended to keep the park’s bison population at about 3,000 animals to guard against transmissions of brucellosis. The disease found in elk and bison is feared by Yellowstone-area ranchers because it can make cattle abort their young.

In a bid to stop the bison killing, wildlife advocates from the Buffalo Field Campaign and other groups sought protections for the herds in 2014.

They sued when their petition was denied, arguing the denial was politically motivated and made out of deference to the livestock industry.

The government’s reconsideration of protections will take several months at a minimum and is not expected to affect this winter’s capture and slaughter program.

Plaintiffs in the case said the judge’s ruling sends a message to the government that it can’t manipulate science to serve the interests of ranchers. But Buffalo Field Campaign director Ken Cole said it would likely take years to get protections in place that would stop the hunting and slaughter of park bison.

“There’s a lot of things the parks and the state can do to avoid listing” bison as protected under the Endangered Species Act, Cole added. “Let them use the habitat outside the park and not limit their numbers to the 3,000.”

Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Jennifer Strickland said agency officials were reviewing Cooper’s rulings.

In their lawsuit, the wildlife advocates pointed to a study from Texas A&M University that said the park’s two herds were genetically distinct from one another and should be managed separately.

A minimum of 3,000 bison are needed to ensure a single herd’s survival, suggesting a target of 3,000 animals for two herds was too low.

Government scientists rejected the claim, saying the distinction between the herds was artificially created.

Cooper determined the rejection was made too hastily. While the government may ultimately prevail in its argument, he said, it must at least “explain why the evidence supporting the petition is unreliable, irrelevant or otherwise unreasonable.”

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials said Wednesday they’ll review the recent lifting of protections for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears in light of a court ruling that retained protections for gray wolves in the Great Lakes.

About 700 bears in and around Yellowstone National Park lost their threatened species status on July 31, opening the door to future trophy hunts in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Just a day later, a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. said in the wolf case that wildlife officials needed to give more consideration to how a species’ loss of historical habitat affects its recovery.

Like wolves, grizzly bears have seen a strong recovery over the past several decades in isolated regions of the U.S., but remain absent from the vast majority of their historical range.

In its response to the appeals court ruling, the Fish and Wildlife Service said it’s now seeking public comment on the potential implications for Yellowstone bears.

The animals will stay under state jurisdiction and off the threatened species list while the review is pending, said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Steve Segin. The agency plans to release its conclusions by March 31.

Grizzlies remain protected as a threatened species outside of the Yellowstone region and Alaska.

Other species could be affected by the ruling, Segin said, adding that it likely would have to be under similar circumstances where a decision was being made on just a segment of a species’ entire population.

Andrea Santarsiere with the Center for Biological Diversity said Wednesday’s announcement was an attempt to paper over what she called “fatal flaws” in the decision to lift protections.

“Yellowstone’s grizzly bears remain at risk and no amount of bureaucratic jujitsu by the Trump administration will change that fact,” Santarsiere said.

The question in the Great Lakes wolf case was whether some members of an animal population can meet the legal definition of recovered even as the species struggles or is nonexistent elsewhere.

A three-judge panel concluded federal officials erroneously considered the status of the Great Lakes population in a vacuum, leaving wolves elsewhere in the country in “legal limbo” after wolves in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota lost protections. Those protections later were restored by a federal judge.

Yellowstone’s bears make up one of the largest populations of grizzlies in the Lower 48. They’ve been isolated for decades from other concentrations of bruins, including an estimated 1,000 grizzlies in northwest Montana.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthewbrownap .