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Wildlife managers hope to bring grizzly hunts back to southwestern Montana

Wildlife managers hope to bring grizzly hunts back to southwestern Montana




BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) - Wildlife managers are looking toward the day when they can again authorize a grizzly bear hunt near Yellowstone National Park.


A proposed grizzly bear management plan views the bear as a game animal that would be subject to "regulated hunting when and where appropriate," the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said.




But the plan could not be implemented until until grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone area are removed from the list of federally protected species.




And Department Chief of Staff Chris Smith predicted, "it's a sure thing that any effort to delist the bear will be litigated."




The Idaho Legislature last month approved its grizzly management plan, which takes the same tact as Montana and Wyoming in calling for the bears to be managed as game animals. Wyoming finalized its management plan in February.




The state plans must be in place before federal officials will begin the process of taking the grizzly bear off the endangered species list.




Montana wildlife managers expect their plan to be finalized by fall.




The grizzly was listed in 1975, forcing Montana to abandon its sport hunt of the bear several years later after conservation groups challenged continuation of the hunt in court.




Smith said there are enough bears now that the animal could be taken off the list. But Heidi Godwin of The Sierra Club called the state's view overly ambitious.




The goal of regional wildlife managers, Smith said, is to complete recovery and delisting by 2005.




In addition to the limited hunting season, the plans' are intended to ensure the long-term viability of bear populations so they do not have to be relisted. They all support extending bear habitat into areas that are "biologically suitable and socially acceptable."