SAINT MARIES, IDAHO—Conservation teams misplaced their attraction on the Ninth Circuit courtroom this week, cementing a decrease courtroom resolution that concluded that bear-baiting in Idaho and Wyoming nationwide forests doesn’t hurt federally-protected grizzly bears. The courtroom order comes on the heels of this week’s information {that a} hunter in Idaho’s Panhandle killed a grizzly bear at a bait station after mistaking it for a black bear, precisely the scenario that the conservation teams have been hoping to forestall with their litigation.
The Idaho Division of Fish and Sport (IDFG) completed investigating the June 10, 2024 grizzly bear killing on June 18, and introduced that the company had misidentified the species from video, successfully giving the hunter permission to shoot the bear on the bait website. A part of the uncertainty was blamed on the truth that the grizzly was outdoors of the species’ recognized vary, regardless of hunters within the Panhandle area being warned by IDFG itself that grizzly encounters are potential.
“These have been precisely the forms of tragic grizzly killings we have been hoping to keep away from by means of our lawsuit for the federal businesses to think about whether or not bear baiting must be allowed in grizzly bear habitat,” stated Erik Molvar, government director of Western Watersheds Mission. “The courts, sadly, didn’t see the dangers and declined to compel new federal session. It’s deeply unlucky.”
“One other protected grizzly bear in Idaho has been shot by a hunter at a black bear bait station–it’s so apparent that bear baiting must be banned in nationwide forests,” stated Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence lawyer at WildEarth Guardians. “IDFG desires to see grizzly bears delisted and claims that they will handle the species. How can they handle grizzly bears if they will’t even determine one?”
“The killing of a threatened grizzly bear at a bait station close to St. Maries is tragic on so many ranges,” stated Dana Johnson, lawyer and coverage director for Wilderness Watch. “The grizzlies who set out in the hunt for new territory are beacons of hope—they’re the bears who will reestablish residence ranges in locations just like the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and assist reconnect and get well in any other case remoted and struggling grizzly bear communities. However we hold baiting and killing them. Incidents like this are tragic as a result of they’re so completely preventable. It has to cease, and we’re not going away till it does.”
“Now we’re confronted with this untenable scenario–the place baiting for black bears is allowed in grizzly habitat by the state of Idaho and sanctioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the federal courts, with there being no approach to maintain anybody accountable for this killing of an endangered grizzly consequently,” stated Jeff Juel of Pals of the Clearwater. “The State of Idaho says the grizzly bear must be faraway from the federal Endangered Species listing as a result of they will handle the species, however this incident proves they’re solely unqualified.”
“Grizzlies deserve protected passage into new habitats, and dispersal is a key facet of their life cycle,” stated Molvar. “A fed bear is a useless bear, and inserting bait stations in grizzly habitat to draw black bears opens a Pandora’s field of unhealthy outcomes.”
Media Contacts:
Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Mission, (307) 399-7910, [email protected] Lizzy Pennock, WildEarth Guardians, (406) 830-8924, [email protected]
Dana Johnson, Wilderness Watch, (208) 310-7003, [email protected]
Jeff Juel, Pals of the Clearwater (509) 688-5956 [email protected]
# # #
