Grizzly Bear Delisting Via Trump?

The results of the November election will surely bring changes to the landscape of the United States. A change that many across the West are hoping to see is the delisting of grizzly bears. The Trump administration will no doubt be taking a look at the beleaguered fight to return management of long-recovered grizzly bear populations in the northern Rocky Mountains to states with management plans waiting in the wings such as Wyoming and Montana. 

The fight to delist grizzly bears in my home state of Wyoming has been long and uphill. A delisting decision in favor of state-level management is overdue. Grizzly bear recovery goals have been widely surpassed and the reality is that it is time to hunt these bears. I hope that common sense wins the day and we see a limited hunt for these magnificent bears in the near future. 

A hunt that offers limited tags through a draw process like Wyoming has drafted would not only benefit the bears with funding for studies and conservation, it would be a step in the right direction for science-based management instead of preservation. 

A hunt for deer or elk in northwestern Wyoming often results in as many grizzly encounters as ungulate interactions. There is a specific drainage where I love to hunt elk in the waning days of Wyoming’s general elk season. I have never hunted here without at least one and most times several, close encounters with grizzly bears. It is a fact of hunting in this corner of Wyoming that it’s not IF you’ll run into a grizz, it’s WHEN. That doesn’t align with the “endangered” status these big bears hold. It is time to delist and hunt grizzlies where their populations have recovered and I hope the new administration can get it done.