PETITION TO THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE To revise the 1993 Recovery Plan for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies using a metapopulation approach for lasting and sustainable recovery

The petition argues that the 1993 Recovery Plan's compartmentalized approach of managing grizzly bears in isolated recovery areas is outdated and fails to ensure long-term genetic and demographic resiliency. It proposes a unified metapopulation framework that manages bears as a single interconnected population across the Northern Rockies, requiring the establishment of natural connectivity and the implementation of stricter regulatory mechanisms to reduce human-caused mortality. The petitioners oppose current efforts by Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to delist grizzly bears, asserting that recovery is premature without a connected metapopulation and durable protections against threats such as habitat fragmentation, climate change, and lethal management policies.

• The 1993 Recovery Plan is considered outdated because it uses a "compartmentalized approach" that manages grizzly bears in five isolated recovery areas, which does not reflect current scientific understanding of the species' needs in the Northern Rockies.
• A metapopulation approach is proposed to manage grizzly bears as a single, interconnected population to improve genetic diversity and demographic resiliency, preventing the high extinction rates associated with "island populations".
• Human-caused mortality is the primary threat to grizzly bears, driven by lethal removal due to livestock conflicts, vehicle collisions, and regressive state policies such as wolf trapping and black bear hound hunting.
• The petition argues that delisting grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is premature because the population remains isolated and lacks the genetic exchange necessary for long-term viability.
• Climate change and anthropogenic degradation are significantly impacting grizzly habitats by altering food availability, specifically through the decline of whitebark pine seeds, which forces bears to seek alternative food sources and increases human-bear conflicts.
• The proposed revised plan requires specific new regulatory mechanisms to be in place before delisting, including permanent prohibitions on wolf trapping and neck snaring, night shooting of carnivores over bait, and hound hunting of black bears in the metapopulation area.
• The petition emphasizes that sport hunting of grizzly bears is not a necessary management tool and should be prohibited in connectivity areas to avoid hindering the natural movement of bears between ecosystems.
• To document recovery, the petition calls for an updated monitoring scheme using camera traps, DNA hair sampling, and radio collaring to confirm the establishment of occupancy goals and genetic connectivity between the five recovery areas.

APA

Earthjustice (2024). PETITION TO THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE To revise the 1993 Recovery Plan for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies using a metapopulation approach for lasting and sustainable recovery. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-12-11-usfws-grizzly-petition_with-exhibits.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. PETITION TO THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE To revise the 1993 Recovery Plan for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies using a metapopulation approach for lasting and sustainable recovery. 2024. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-12-11-usfws-grizzly-petition_with-exhibits.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=PETITION TO THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE To revise the 1993 Recovery Plan for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies using a metapopulation approach for lasting and sustainable recovery |date=11 December 2024 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-12-11-usfws-grizzly-petition_with-exhibits.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2024petition, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{PETITION TO THE UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE To revise the 1993 Recovery Plan for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies using a metapopulation approach for lasting and sustainable recovery}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2024}, month = dec, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-12-11-usfws-grizzly-petition_with-exhibits.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }