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Keep grizzly bears protected!

The federal government is currently deciding whether it will remove Endangered Species act protections for grizzly bears living in the Northern Continental Divide and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystems. Not only should the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service keep protections for these grizzly bears, it must also stop allowing federal wildlife conservation dollars to go towards harmful and ineffective “predator-control operations,” such as in Alaska, that target bears.

Thanks to their ESA protections, grizzly bears have slowly begun to recover their numbers. Yet with fewer than 2,000 individuals in the lower 48 states, it’s critical that they retain these protections if they are to survive. If grizzly bears lose those protections, those three states will undoubtedly allow trophy hunting and the bears cannot survive the inevitable carnage. We don’t have a moment to lose if we want to save this iconic species from extinction. The Service must also stop funding Alaska because it uses wildlife conservation dollars for aerial gunning operations that kill bears and wolves.

TAKE ACTION
Please take a moment to contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and urge them to keep grizzly bears protected under the Endangered Species Act, and stop funding Alaskan predator-control operations.

This action alert is for U.S. residents. International advocates, please visit Humane Society International.

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Dear Director Williams, 

I am writing to urge you to please keep grizzly bears living in the Northern Continental Divide and the Greater Yellowstone ecosystems protected under the Endangered Species Act, and to request that the Service must stop funding Alaska until it ceases predator-control operations including aerial gunning of bears and wolves. 

Grizzly bears once ranged from northern Mexico to Alaska, but by the 1930s, this iconic species had been nearly wiped out. The remaining ~135 bears were saved by the Endangered Species Act in 1975. With these protections, grizzly bears have slowly begun to recover their numbers, but with fewer than 2,000 individuals in the lower 48 states, it’s critical that they retain their Endangered Species Act protections if they are to survive.  

If grizzly bears lose ESA protections, states will undoubtedly allow trophy hunting. We know this because when the FWS delisted GYE bears in 2017, both Idaho and Wyoming rushed to set up trophy hunts that were halted only by swift legal action by wildlife protection groups. Grizzly bears simply cannot endure the inevitable carnage that would occur under these hunts.

In addition, surveys find that grizzly bear biologists and the American public don’t support delisting grizzly bears. A 2018 study found that 74% of grizzly bear biologists surveyed do not believe that GYE grizzly bears are recovered. And a January 2022 Remington Research Group poll found 73% of Americans oppose the trophy hunting of grizzly bears. 

Grizzly bears have significant economic value. While trophy hunters are subsidized by us all, the travel tourism industry in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming is worth billions of dollars annually. Wildlife tourists contribute significantly to local economies and fund jobs, with millions of visitors spending $4.4 billion in Montana in 2020, $4 billion in Wyoming in 2021, $3.7 billion in Idaho in 2021 and $5.6 billion in Alaska in 2023. And 10 million people around the world enjoy the National Park Service’s Fat Bear Week, where popular webcams capture bears feeding on salmon in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.

Grizzly bears are hampered by trophy hunting and lethal control, loss of habitat and corridors and the effects of the climate crisis. I urge you to please keep grizzly bears in the lower-48 protected under the Endangered Species Act, and not to fund Alaska’s predator control operations through Pittman-Robertson’s wildlife conservation act funds.

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