It's been less than a year since Yellowstone's iconic grizzlies were prematurely stripped of federal protection, and Wyoming's already trying to open the door to allow trophy hunting for the first time in four decades under a new proposal.
There was once estimated to be 50,000 grizzly bears in the U.S., but by 1975 there were only 136 left in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), which includes parts of northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana and eastern Idaho.
They were protected under the Endangered Species Act that year and have slowly started to recover, but they still occupy less than four percent of their historic range, and face a host of threats from a loss of whitebark pine trees, which provide a critical food source for them before they hibernate, to genetic isolation, poaching, climate change and conflicts with humans.
Despite those threats and the fact that their population has declined over the past two years, they were stripped of federal protection last summer, which raised concerns that turning management over to the states would open the door to trophy hunting.
Now that looks like a real possibility. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has released a new draft regulation that would allow the killing of up to 24 grizzly bears, including 10 males and two females in the GYE, in addition to another 12 of either sex outside the monitoring area.
Allowing trophy hunting will only hurt their chances of survival even more and will put grizzlies who dare to wander past arbitrary boundaries of Yellowstone and Teton National Park at immediate risk of being killed when they need to be allowed to roam.
Wildlife officials should instead be focused on promoting coexistence with grizzlies, who draw millions of people to the area every year who just want a chance to see them in the wild in one of the few places they still exist in the lower 48.
Please sign and share this petition asking Wyoming Game and Fish Department not to allow trophy hunting in Wyoming.
