Citing updated population estimates of more than 1,000 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the State of Wyoming is once again seeking to manage grizzly bears.

At a Thursday press conference, Gov. Mark Gordon, accompanied by Game and Fish director Brian Nesvik, claimed a celebration was in order after the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team recently recalibrated and updated population estimates.

“In 1975, there were as few as 136 bears in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Today, there are more than 1,000,” Gordon said. “To that end, we are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deal with the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear population. It’s time for grizzly bears to be returned fully to the states for management.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has spent more than $55 million on grizzly bear conservation since the species was listed for protections. Expenses have increased over time, Nesvik said. The department now spends about $2 million per year on grizzly bear conservation.

The federal government has attempted to delist the area’s grizzly bears, most recently in 2017. However, in 2018, a Montana judge sided with conservation organizations and tribes and reinstated protections 36 hours before Idaho and Wyoming hunts were scheduled to begin. The following spring, the Wyoming Legislature passed legislation giving the Game and Fish Commission the authority to hold a hunting season despite the September ruling. In an unanimous
decision, the commission passed on the opportunity.

The petition will be finalized in the coming weeks, Gordon said. There will be changes in the application, including the promise to translocate the Yellowstone Ecosystem species into another population as needed to increase genetic diversity — one of the sticking points in the 2018 decision by Judge Dana L. Christensen of the U.S. District Court for Montana. The judge found that the Fish and Wildlife Service had not adequately considered the impacts of hunting on grizzly populations outside the region or the lack of connectivity with bears in other ecosystems.

Critics have suggested the state will use management to open a hunting season on the species.

“The only reason the states want more management control is so they can kill more bears and allow a trophy hunt,” said Andrea Zaccardi, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a prepared statement Thursday. 

The group was one of several organizations that sued to stop hunts planned for the species in 2018.

“I don’t think we can trust the state to manage grizzly bears,” Zaccardi said.

Nesvik said a hunt isn’t immediately planned should Wyoming once again receive control of grizzly bear management.

“I wouldn’t want to speculate on how they may develop hunting seasons,” he said. “You know, that’s probably a year or three down the road.”

The state immediately planned grizzly bear hunts after it was delisted in 2017. The hunt would have seen as many as 22 grizzlies harvested by sportsmen.

Nesvik said the state will draw on years of experience to successfully write the new petition.

“This isn’t our first time riding this horse,” he said. “The grizzly bear in the [Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem] has been delisted by the Bush administration, the Obama administration and the Trump administration.”

Gordon also discussed management of gray wolves in response to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision last week to review the status of the species; the agency’s decision came after receiving two petitions demanding gray wolves be once again listed for protections under the Endangered Species Act.

“We are confident they’ll find Wyoming’s management program has been highly successful in meeting our commitment to the long term viability of gray wolves in Wyoming,” Gordon said.