Earlier this month the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to keep grizzly bears in the lower 48 under federal protections, maintaining their status as “threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.
The agency had scheduled public hearings on the decision for Missoula, Coeur D’Alene, Cody and online this week.
But roughly a day before the first meeting was scheduled in Missoula, the agency announced the meetings wouldn’t be happening. In a statement, the agency wrote the meetings were cancelled while the new presidential administration reviews the proposal.
“In light of the recent transition and the need for this Administration to review the recent grizzly bear proposed rule, the Service is cancelling all four of the public meetings and hearings that the agency voluntarily scheduled on this proposal,” an agency statement said.
The first Trump Administration attempted to delist grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park in 2017, only to have that decision overturned by a federal court ruling in 2018. President Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Interior has expressed interest in delisting the bears again.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife declined to answer MTPR’s questions about the cancellation.
