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Keep grizzly bears protected!

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they are retaining federal protections for grizzly bears living in the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. With fewer than 2,000 individuals in the lower-48 states, it’s critical that these grizzly bears remain fully protected.

While this is a positive step, grizzly bears still need your help!

In seeming contradiction to their decision to continue protections for grizzly bears, USFWS also proposed making it easier for those in agribusiness—like ranches or cattle farms—to kill grizzly bears on both public and private lands. This is a concern because these cattle and sheep producers pose the single greatest threat to grizzly bear recovery, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, putting their continued recovery at risk.

While we are encouraged by the support for continued protections for these bears, we also urge USFWS to work to reduce all conflicts with grizzly bears to ensure those protections are meaningful.

TAKE ACTION
Please use the form to contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and urge them to not adopt rules that permit greater leniency for those in agribusiness to kill grizzly bears and instead increase efforts to reduce all conflicts with grizzly bears, including with cattle and sheep owners.

This action alert is for U.S. residents.

Your message

Subject*

Dear Hilary Cooley, USFWS Grizzly Bear Coordinator, 

I write to thank you for keeping grizzly bears who live in the lower-48 states protected by the Endangered Species Act. I am pleased by this U.S. Fish and Wildlife decision that is based in sound science.

But I urge you not to change the 4(d) rule, which sets much-needed guardrails that protect bears. Even with this rule in place, too many in agribusiness kill grizzly bears, according to the data kept by the U.S. Geological Survey. By reducing the protections of the 4(d) rule, grizzly bear recovery could be in jeopardy. Instead, it makes sense for the agency to help reduce conflicts—not to permit even more killing.

Grizzly bears have significant economic value to Americans. 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 and $3.7 billion in Idaho in 2021. 

Because grizzly bears are hampered by lethal control, loss of habitat and corridors and the effects of the climate crisis, I urge you to please keep and even strengthen protections for grizzly bears in the lower-48 protected afforded by the Service’s 4(d) rule.

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