Photo courtesy of the National Park Service
In a packed courtroom in Missoula, Montana, yesterday, a judge heard oral arguments on the legality of removing endangered species protections from Yellowstone’s iconic grizzly bears. The Sierra Club and our coplaintiffs -- the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, and National Parks Conservation Association -- ably represented by Earthjustice’s Tim Preso, argued that stripping grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone of endangered species protections was premature and risks the future of these majestic animals.
No decision was made, so immediately following the hearing, grizzly advocates filed a temporary restraining order on the trophy hunts scheduled to start in only two days in Wyoming and Idaho. To our relief, just two hours later the motion was approved, halting the hunts for 14 days while the judge deliberates further on the lawfulness of the grizzly delisting. In his order, Judge Christensen stated “The Organizational Plaintiffs have submitted substantial documentation of potential harm to the species” and “Here, the Court finds that the Plaintiffs' arguments raise "serious questions going to the merits."
We hope that within the next two weeks, the court will side with science and the law rather than with the federal government’s flawed delisting rule and with states, which clearly want to reduce the size and range of the grizzly bear population in Greater Yellowstone. If the delisting rule is declared illegal, then endangered species protections will be restored, trophy hunts cannot take place, and management will be returned to the federal government.
For now, we can breathe a sigh of relief that grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone cannot be hunted beginning this weekend, and that is very good news indeed. The overwhelming public and Tribal opposition over the past two years to removal of endangered species protections and to trophy hunting of the Yellowstone region’s grizzly bears has been powerful and inspiring, and we will keep fighting to maintain protections until this still-vulnerable grizzly bear population is fully recovered.