SCI and the NRA filed a Notice of Appeal in the case that will determine the validity of the delisting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) grizzly bear population.
SCI and the NRA joined the State of Wyoming, that had already noticed its appeal. Other hunting groups, including U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, also noticed their appeal. Whether the author of the rule — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — will also file an appeal is as yet unknown.
The appeal will be heard by the Ninth Circuit Court.
SCI and NRA’s appeal seeks to reverse the September 24 ruling by a Montana federal district court that vacated the FWS’s delisting of the GYE grizzly bears. The court’s ruling meant that the GYE grizzly bear population returned to threatened status and that Wyoming and Idaho could not hold their planned bear harvests this year.
SCI and NRA disagree with the district court’s determination that the FWS did not adequately consider the impact of the GYE grizzly bear delisting on other grizzly populations in the lower 48 states and with the court’s assessment of the FWS’s conclusions about the threat posed by GYE population’s relative genetic isolation.
SCI has long supported the delisting of the GYE grizzly bear population and participated as an intervenor to defend the FWS’s previous attempt to remove the bears from the threatened species list.
The GYE grizzly population no longer meets the Endangered Species Act’s requirements for threatened status and the population has recovered and can be managed with regulated hunting.
Through this appeal, SCI will continue to defend the delisting and the sustainable management and conservation of the population.
