The Trump administration proposed Tuesday to hand over management of grizzly bears to Western states, a win for advocates of local control that did not change the underlying imperiled status of the bears.
In front of a mountain backdrop in Montana and flanked by three governors, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that state wildlife agencies would be able to manage the bears within their borders. The bears would continue to be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and hunting would not be allowed.
“Decisions should be made close to the people affected by them,” said Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who joined Burgum on Tuesday along with Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.
The Fish and Wildlife Service plans to open a monthlong public comment period about the proposed management plan, which was not yet available Tuesday night.
“Grizzly bear conservation has steadily advanced over the decades in many portions of the species’ range,” Fish and Wildlife Director Brian Nesvik said in a statement. “This proposal recognizes these successes and right-sizes management where the greatest conservation success has taken place.”
Ranchers and Republican leaders of Western states have for years pushed to remove the bear species from the ESA list, arguing its population has sufficiently recovered and should be managed at the state level.
As bear populations have grown in recent years and sometimes frequent more populated areas, there have been more conflicts with local residents, the governors said.
“When you have bears showing up in corn mazes, it means that they are recovered,” Gordon said.
Conservationists have challenged the idea that grizzlies have rebounded, saying they remain threatened by activities like logging that disrupts their habitats and that their populations are not interconnected.
“This is a decision being made for political reasons, it is not based on science, in the best interest of the survival of the species, or in compliance with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act,” Greg LeDonne, Idaho director of Western Watersheds Project, said in a statement.
The grizzlies that live in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming are designated as a distinct subpopulation. The bears are not federally protected in Alaska.
Idaho officials previously sued FWS over the bear’s listing, which led to a 2024 settlement that set a deadline for a final rule to modify or remove the protections. That deadline was extended until December earlier this year.
“The next logical step is to turn a species that was originally listed as endangered into one that we can manage better,” Little said.
At the end of the Biden administration, federal wildlife officials proposed to keep in place protections for grizzly bears while allowing for exceptions to kill individual bears, including when they threaten livestock. FWS has been reevaluating that plan since Trump returned to office.
More than 200,000 people left comments on the January 2025 proposal, which FWS released shortly before former President Joe Biden left office.
While there were an estimated 50,000 grizzlies across the Western U.S. before European settlement, the bears were wiped out from all but 2 percent of their range by the 1930s, according to FWS. With their numbers at around 700 to 800 individuals in 1975, officials began efforts to recover the species. They later established six recovery zones.
The bear’s numbers in the continental U.S. are now estimated at around 1,900, which environmentalists argue is not sufficient to ensure their continued survival.
