From E&E News:

Interior releases post-delisting management proposal for grizzlies 
		Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
				Published: Thursday, May 2, 2013
 
			
	
	
		The Fish and Wildlife Service today released a draft conservation 
strategy for grizzly bears in northern Montana, a document designed to 
demonstrate the species is ready to be removed from the endangered 
species list.


	While no final decisions have been made about whether to delist the 
Northern Continental Divide population of grizzlies, agency officials 
said the strategy is designed to provide "adequate regulatory 
mechanisms" to ensure the species continues to thrive, a key requisite 
under the Endangered Species Act.


	"We developed this strategy because maintenance of a healthy, 
recovered grizzly population depends on the effective continuation of 
many partnerships to manage and conserve the Northern Continental Divide
 Ecosystem grizzly bear population and its habitat," said Noreen Walsh, 
Mountain-Prairie regional director for FWS. "By involving the public, we
 aim to arrive at a scientifically based strategy that not only ensures 
the persistence of grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide 
Ecosystem, but also works for the people living in the places that 
grizzlies call home."


	The draft strategy spells out management and monitoring of the grizzly bear population and habitat upon delisting.


	Noting that humans are the leading cause of grizzly deaths 
worldwide, the strategy seeks ways to prevent and respond to human-bear 
conflicts and mitigate impacts through habitat protections.


	The grizzly population in the Northern Continental Divide, which 
includes Glacier National Park, adjacent areas in Canada and the Bob 
Marshall Wilderness Complex, now numbers 1,000 and continues to grow, 
FWS said.


	FWS in 2007 delisted grizzlies in the Yellowstone National Park 
region, but protections were reinstated in 2009 by a federal judge in 
Montana who ruled Interior had failed to prove that a decline in 
whitebark pine -- a key food source for grizzlies -- would not threaten 
the species' survival.


	Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last summer assured Wyoming 
Gov. Matt Mead (R) that he would try again to delist the Yellowstone 
population by 2014 (Greenwire, July 24, 2012).
	
 		 	   		  
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