Score one for the grizzlies!
On Monday, a federal judge in Montana ruled to restore federal protection for these majestic beasts who roam the land around Yellowstone National Park. The decision comes two years after the George W. Bush administration took it away citing their “amazing” and sustainable recovery, a claim many conservationists say was based on fuzzy science.
“The judge recognized what we have been saying all along: Protecting grizzlies requires enforceable, science-based standards to protect habitat,” Louisa Willcox, senior wildlife advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times.
US District Judge Donald W. Molloy harshly criticized the 2007 findings of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which concluded that grizzlies in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho could find adequate food and shelter without federal intervention. Judge Molloy and other environmental groups say the findings did not jive with the government’s own scientific research.
“Much of the science [cited by the government] directly contradicts the service’s conclusions,” the judge wrote in his 46-page decision. “Where the agency’s conclusions contradict the science, the conclusions are not reasonable, and the court need not defer to the agency’s decision.”
Conservationists, led by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, say global warming has played a role in endangering the approximately 580 grizzly bears that live in and around the national park. Studies show that white bark pine nuts, a popular grizzly entree, have become scarce because the trees that produce them have been invaded by destructive beetles.
“With global warming, the beetles are able to survive the winter. And also because the warm season is longer, instead of getting one reproductive cycle, you get two or even three,” Doug Honnold, who argued the case for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, told the LA Times.
So grizzlies: fear no more. The government totally has your big, hairy backs.
Photo courtesy of Terry Tollefsbol, National Conservation Training Center-Publications and Training Materials, via Wikimedia Commons.
