Idaho officials want grizzly bears to be removed from Endangered Species Act protections, plan to file lawsuit against federal government

May 10—Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Attorney General Raul Labrador said Wednesday they intend to sue the federal government over its refusal to remove Endangered Species Act protections from grizzly bears.

In a 60-day notice of intent to sue, Little and Labrador said the federal government erred in 1975 when it listed grizzly bears in the Lower 48 states as a endangered species.

"Idaho's entire congressional delegation and the State of Idaho are lockstep in efforts to delist grizzly bears," Little said in a news release. "Idaho has continually demonstrated leadership in species management, and we have never hesitated to push back on the federal government's overreaching actions that greatly impact a variety of activities on the ground in our state."

According to the state's argument, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service defined the range of grizzly protection too broadly and in violation of the ESA when the species was first listed. It says the geographic area of "the Lower 48 States" does not qualify as a "distinct population" and includes vast areas, such as states east of the Mississippi River, where grizzlies never roamed. Because of the error, the state claims grizzlies, as defined, do not qualify as a species.

The state made the same claims last year in a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking that the great bears be stripped of federal protection. That petition was rejected.

"I think the Fish and Wildlife Service appropriately responded to the state's petition. The state really didn't provide credible scientific backing for why the species was improperly listed," Brad Smith of the Idaho Conservation League said.

Smith said in Idaho, only the Yellowstone population of grizzlies meet recovery goals while bears in the Selkirks and Cabinet-Yaak recovery areas don't and the Bitterroot Recovery Area in north central Idaho has no resident grizzly bears.

In addition, Smith said Idaho's liberal wolf hunting and trapping regulations and its intent to drive down the state's wolf population should give the federal government pause that it would responsibly manage grizzly bears if they were to be delisted.

"Idaho has undermined its case for state management of grizzlies through the actions it has taken with wolf management after wolf delisting," he said.

Jim Fredericks, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said the state is prepared to manage grizzlies.

"The State of Idaho has been and continues to be 100-percent committed to the conservation of grizzly bears, as the actions of local communities, landowners, recreationists and state government have demonstrated," he said in the news release. "This action is in response to a flawed ESA listing almost 50 years ago that has now become a barrier to the delisting of recovered populations."

While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected Idaho's petition to delist grizzlies across the Lower 48, it accepted much more narrow petitions from Wyoming and Montana. The two states asked that ESA protections for grizzlies in the Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems, which each have about 1,000 great bears and are meeting population objectives, be downlisted. Idaho has about 100 to 200 grizzlies, many of which spend much of their time in Wyoming, Montana and British Columbia, Canada.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.