Change.org Petition: Are grizzly bears no longer endangered?

Keep Grizzly Bears Protected Under the Endangered Species Act 1,060 have signed Center for Biological Diversity’s petition. Let’s get to 1,500!

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Grizzly 399 shows what’s at stake if grizzlies lose protections. The world’s oldest mama bear beat the odds when she emerged from the woods and crossed North Park Road with a brand-new cub in tow in early May.  The 27-year-old bear has survived to produce roughly two dozen cubs and grandcubs, and she’s benefited from strong protections under federal law.  But the safeguards that have served Grizzly 399 so well are in danger of being removed. This would be a tragedy for grizzlies and everyone who cares about their wellbeing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering removing Endangered Species Act protections from grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems, endangering bears that live just outside Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks. The bears are currently protected as threatened, offering them a number of safeguards as an imperiled species. And despite some positive signs of population growth, grizzlies remain in danger. Grizzly bears were nearly eradicated over the past 200 years as settlers, motivated by fear and profit, systemically massacred them. By the time the bears in the lower 48 states were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, they’d nearly been wiped out. Today they survive in only about 6% of their historic range and continue to face a number of threats, including habitat loss and poaching. The Endangered Species Act is the strongest safeguard protecting grizzlies, and there’s evidence to prove it. When grizzly bears temporarily lost federal protection in 2017, Wyoming and Idaho both rushed to approve trophy hunts. Wyoming had approved the killing of up to 13 female grizzly bears before successful litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity and others halted the hunts. Hunting is an especially dire threat for grizzlies since they reproduce so slowly. They start reproduction at a late age, have small average litters and experience a long interval between litters. And grizzly mothers are already in danger in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, near Yellowstone National Park, where a federal plan would allow up to 72 grizzlies to be killed on behalf of the livestock industry. The plan doesn’t include any limits on how many mother bears could be slaughtered. All of us owe it to Grizzly 399 and her surviving offspring to get this right. Grizzlies are an integral part of the West’s landscape. We need them to keep ecosystems healthy and thriving, just like they need our protections. But beyond that, Wyoming and Montana would be bleaker, less wild places if we allowed bears like Grizzly 399 to be hunted down. The Center will push the Fish and Wildlife Service to do the right thing and maintain federal protection for these majestic bears, but we need you with us.  Sign the petition telling the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that you oppose stripping Endangered Species Act protection from grizzly bears.

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