Grizzly Bear Conservation at Risk as U.S. Interior Department Plans to Hand Management Over to States
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of the Interior's announcement to transfer grizzly Bear management to the states puts decades of conservation progress and billions in public investment at risk. The move follows a July 2026 proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to alter grizzly bear protections under the Endangered Species Act. Additionally, some lawmakers are pursuing legislation to remove federal safeguards by bypassing the ESA's science-based review process (H.R. 281/S. 316), while appropriations riders (H.R. 9171) would further erode protections. Broader efforts aim to weaken the ESA (H.R. 1897), undermining scientific decision-making, habitat protections, and judicial oversight.
Grizzly Bear Conservation at Risk as U.S. Interior Department Plans to Hand Mana
"For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has protected grizzly bears and countless other species from extinction. Today, those protections are under attack," said Kitty Block, president and CEO at Humane World for Animals. "Grizzly bears face habitat loss and human-caused mortality, and they live in small, isolated populations that do not allow for sufficient genetic diversity. With fewer than 2,000 grizzly bears remaining in the Lower 48 states, this is no time to weaken federal protections."
Key facts about grizzly bears in the United States:
- The Endangered Species Act helped save grizzly bears from extinction. Grizzly bears were listed as threatened in 1973 and have not yet recovered from the killing campaigns that brought them to the brink of extinction.
- Today, fewer than 2,000 grizzly bears remain in isolated populations in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, occupying only about 6% of their historic range.
- Conservation biologists warn that the increasingly limited genetic diversity of these small and disconnected grizzly bear populations threatens the species' long-term survival and resilience.
- Grizzly bears reproduce more slowly than most mammals. Females typically have litters only every three to four years, and it can take about 10 years for a single female to replace herself in the population.
- Both 2024 and 2025 saw record-level mortalities for grizzly bears living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, as bears must roam farther to find food when key sources dry up. It promises to be difficult for bears to find food in national parks and elsewhere this summer and fall after a dry winter.