{"id":26025,"date":"2024-11-12T08:01:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T15:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/?p=26025"},"modified":"2024-11-12T08:01:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T15:01:27","slug":"court-rules-federal-program-that-kills-grizzly-bears-and-other-wildlife-in-montana-violated-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/court-rules-federal-program-that-kills-grizzly-bears-and-other-wildlife-in-montana-violated-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribunal dictamina que programa federal que mata osos pardos y otros animales salvajes en Montana viol\u00f3 la ley"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, a federal district court in Missoula ruled<\/a> that the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s wildlife-killing program Wildlife Services failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act before killing or removing grizzly bears in Montana. Management killing and removal is the leading cause of grizzly bear mortality<\/a>. Conservation groups WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, and Trap Free Montana filed the challenge in January 2023, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe\u2019re really pleased with the court\u2019s decision,\u201d said Matthew Bishop, the Western Environmental Law Center attorney representing the groups. \u201cIt\u2019s imperative that federal agencies in the business of removing and killing grizzly bears throughout Montana take a hard look at the consequences of those actions on grizzly conservation, including connectivity between recovery areas. Indeed, from a conservation perspective, bears that move out of Greater Yellowstone or the Northern Continental Divide are among the most important for the long-term recovery and viability of the species.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrizzly bears need all the help they can get right now, not more \u2018tools in the toolbox\u2019 for killing them,\u201d said Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence attorney with WildEarth Guardians. \u201cThis decision recognizes that USDA Wildlife Services failed to adequately consider the impacts on grizzly bear recovery from their \u2018predator removal program.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Christensen\u2019s order reads in part: \u201c\u2026because Wildlife Services disregarded a substantial body of scientific evidence and unconvincingly dismissed critical concerns about the effects and effectiveness of lethally removing grizzly bears and other predators, the [environmental assessment] is insufficient.\u201d (order at 44)<\/i><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s ruling means Wildlife Services must more thoroughly analyze how killing grizzly bears affects the long-term viability of the grizzly bear population, and ultimately, their ability to fully recover within the meaning of the Endangered Species Act. The order allows Wildlife Services to continue operating the program but it must prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by Nov. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs grizzlies disperse into and reoccupy parts of their former range, it is critical for recovery of the species that these pioneering bears are protected,\u201d said Patrick Kelly, Montana Director for Western Watersheds Project. \u201cThis welcome decision now means that as Wildlife Services carries out its grizzly bear killing program\u2013often at the behest of public lands livestock permittees\u2013the agency must meaningfully analyze the impacts of these killings on recovery of the species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservation groups were particularly concerned with Wildlife Services\u2019 grizzly bear killing practices, arguing the program failed to analyze how that killing affects the broader grizzly bear population as it moves toward establishing natural connectivity between recovery zones and reinhabiting essential habitat, including in the Bitterroot Ecosystem. Wildlife Services does not track the number of grizzly bears killed outside recovery zones in Montana.<\/p>\n

Bears between recovery zones are called \u201cdispersing\u201d bears because they are expanding the boundaries of existing population cores, helping to establish natural connectivity between recovery zones. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined<\/a> the lack of connectivity and genetic interchange between the grizzly bear recovery zones impedes the population\u2019s ability to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrizzlies face multiple challenges to their recovery and sustainability, \u201c said KC York, founder and president of Trap Free Montana. \u201cWe are pleased the court addressed the unknowns and dismissals of grizzlies facilitated by the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, and ordered a light to be shined on this black hole of information to help grizzlies\u2019 rightful recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Background:<\/b><\/p>\n

This lawsuit followed WildEarth Guardians\u2019 successful 2019 lawsuit against Montana-Wildlife Services for relying on decades old environmental analyses to support its predator-killing program in\u00a0 Montana. Settlement of that lawsuit resulted in the 2021 environmental analyses the conservation groups challenged in this lawsuit as inadequate.<\/p>\n

Wildlife Services kills hundreds of thousands of native wild animals every year<\/a> nationwide, including native carnivores. In Montana, Wildlife Services kills wildlife, including grizzly bears, by shooting them from aircraft or from the ground, strangling them with neck snares, capturing them in traps (including baited traps), and poisoning them.<\/p>\n

Grizzly bears are a federally listed threatened species in the lower 48 states, with a population of less than 2,000, primarily living in two core areas: the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Recovery of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states depends on establishing connectivity between these and other isolated populations (such as the Cabinet-Yaak) and restoring populations in areas such as the Bitterroot, where colonizers eradicated local grizzly populations. Recovery also depends upon reducing human-caused mortality, including management removals, which is the leading cause of grizzly bear mortality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/b><\/p>\n

Matthew Bishop, Western Environmental Law Center, 406-422-9866, bishop@westernlaw.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Lizzy Pennock, WildEarth Guardians, 406-830-8924, lpennock@wildearthguardians.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Patrick Kelly, Western Watersheds Project, 208-576-4314, patrick@westernwatersheds.org<\/a><\/p>\n

KC York, Trap Free Montana, 406-218-1170, info@trapfreemt.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, a federal district court in Missoula ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s wildlife-killing program Wildlife Services failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act before killing or removing grizzly bears in Montana. Management killing and removal is the leading cause of grizzly bear mortality. Conservation groups WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-release"],"yoast_head":"\nCourt rules federal program that kills grizzly bears and other wildlife in Montana violated the law - Western Environmental Law Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/?p=26025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court rules federal program that kills grizzly bears and other wildlife in Montana violated the law - Western Environmental Law Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Friday, a federal district court in Missoula ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s wildlife-killing program Wildlife Services failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act before killing or removing grizzly bears in Montana. 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Management killing and removal is the leading cause of grizzly bear mortality. Conservation groups WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project,…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26025"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26030,"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26025\/revisions\/26030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernlaw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26025"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}