Wildlife advocates are pushing back on plans to allow 72 grizzly bears to be killed to accommodate livestock grazing in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, explains the group believes that while grizzly populations have increased since they were listed as endangered in 1975, they’re not out of the woods yet. She says that instead of making industry do more to prevent conflicts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has simply approved killing more bears.
However, the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological opinion determined that proposed conservation measures, to be carried out by ranchers, would not jeopardize grizzly bears, currently listed as a threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club say they will file a lawsuit to block last year’s authorization for bear elimination over a 10-year Bridger-Teton grazing program.
photo: Adams/NPS
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