Interior Unveils Rule Letting States Manage 1,000 Yellowstone Grizzlies After 20 Years of Recovery
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 30
Interior Unveils Rule Letting States Manage 1,000 Yellowstone Grizzlies After 20 Years of Recovery
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 30
Summary
Doug Burgum last week announced a rule giving Wyoming and neighboring states more authority to manage grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, shifting control away from federal agencies.
About 1,000 grizzlies now live in the ecosystem, up from roughly 136 when the species was listed in 1975, and the population has exceeded federal recovery benchmarks since 2004.
Wyoming says it has spent tens of millions of dollars on biologists, monitoring and conflict-response teams, including relocating dozens of bears each year to reduce clashes with ranchers and recreationists.
The rule follows years of failed delisting efforts: the population was briefly delisted in 2007, relisted in 2009 after litigation, and state petitions were rejected again in 2023 and January 2025.
The move is framed as a first step toward full delisting of the Greater Yellowstone grizzly, testing whether the Endangered Species Act will return recovered species to state management.