Federal protection won't be restored for Yellowstone-area grizzly bears despite questions about decisions on management strategy that has activists howling and some states considering hunting seasons.

The decision by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service  was announced in the Federal Register April 30. It follows a months-long review of the Yellowstone-area grizzly bears population, habitat, threats and other aspects related to determining further protection or removal from the Endangered Species List of Endangered or Threatened Wildlife.

Yellowstone-area grizzly bears have been protected since 1975. Estimates put about 700 grizzly bears in the area, which impacts Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The latter two states are considering hunting seasons in autumn; Montana officials decided to not have a hunting season this year.

The review was sparked due to a federal appeals court ruling in the ongoing Great Lakes gray wolf management fight. A court said the Interior Department, which supervises the US Fish & Wildlife Service, needed to consider the wolves' loss of historical habitat range and how that may affect recovery of the species.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials disagree with that ruling about historical habitat loss. Their ruling about the grizzly bears is that the species is recovered and should be delisted, and states can manage as needed.

Here is the summary from the USFWS:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce our determination that our 2017 final rule to designate the population of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) as a distinct population segment and remove that population from the Endangered Species Act's List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife does not require modification.

After considering the best scientific and commercial data available and public comments on this issue received during a regulatory review, we affirm our decision that the GYE population of grizzly bears is recovered and should remain delisted under the Act. Accordingly, the Service does not plan to initiate further regulatory action for the GYE grizzly bear population.

Wildlife activists are already champing at the bit about this situation and no doubt will file more lawsuits. Stay tuned.

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