Federal District Court Judge Dana Christensen has ordered the federal government to conduct a new analysis of its work to prevent bear-human conflicts — including looking at the bears killed outside of recovery areas. That’s due November 1, of 2026.
Wildlife Services, a division within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is responsible for removing animals that get into conflict with humans. Those removals often involve killing the animal.
Wildlife advocacy groups Trap Free Montana, WildEarth Guardians, and Western Watersheds Project sued the program in 2023, saying its environmental assessment did not sufficiently examine how killing a bear affects the overall population. The court agreed.
The groups estimate Wildlife Services kills an average of 10 grizzly bears in Montana every year.
Wildlife managers agree that connectivity, or the ability for bears to move from one subpopulation to another, is a key component of a successful recovery.
Grizzlies are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Separate from this case, the U.S. Department of the Interior is expected to make a decision on delisting two grizzly subpopulations in early 2025.
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The deadline to decide on whether grizzly bears will remain under federal protection has been pushed back by a year. The U.S.. Fish and Wildlife Service was originally court-ordered to make a decision by the end of January, but last Friday, a federal judge extended that deadline to the end of the year. -
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