The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Biden administration has declined a petition from Wyoming and Montana to remove grizzly bears from endangered species protection, the agency announced on Wednesday.
"This reclassification will facilitate recovery of grizzly bears and provide a stronger foundation for eventual delisting," USFWS Director Martha Williams said in a statement. "And the proposed changes to our rule will provide management agencies and landowners more tools and flexibility to deal with human/bear conflicts, an essential part of grizzly bear recovery."
Those in affected areas have sought to remove grizzlies from the federal endangered species list after decades of documented population increases of the bears. Grizzlies number about 2,000 in the 48 contiguous states, up from fewer than 1,000 in the 1970s.
Instated, the USFWS created a new regulation that would replace the six grizzly recovery zones in the lower 48 states with a single distinct population segment encompassing areas in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Washington.
The change was met with frustration from others who say the agency is ignoring evidence and placing the bears above the health and safety of those who live and work the land in grizzly populated states.
Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., House Natural Resources Committee chair, said the move defied science, in a statement Wednesday.
"The only reasonable announcement by the USFWS today would have been a total delisting of the grizzly bear in these ecosystems. USFWS is blatantly ignoring science in their decision by hiding behind bureaucratic red tape," Westerman said. "Their decision endangers communities, especially farmers and ranchers, who live under the threat of grizzly bear attacks."
Montana Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican, agreed saying that the agency keeps moving the goal post noting that the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s recovery goal of 500 bears was met in 2003. "Today’s announcement is incredibly frustrating for Montana," Daines said. "For decades, Montana has followed the science and as a result, the bear has more than recovered in the Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems."
The last-minute ruling by the Biden administration follows two other controversial changes in the president’s final days.
On Monday, the White House announced a ban on oil and natural gas leasing on more than 625 million acres of coastal waters around the U.S.
On Tuesday, Biden declared two new national monuments in California, the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, cutting off close to a million acres of tribal land for energy development.