The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) just proposed weakening Endangered Species Act protections for grizzlies in the Lower 48 by revising the rules that regulate when these bears can be killed, injured, or harassed. The agency wants to create new, vaguely explained processes involving “Memoranda of Understanding” and “Technical Letters of Assistance” to lift restrictions on killing grizzlies and shift important decisions to states.
Despite lacking transparency and defined guardrails, these new processes will be used to handover decisions about lethal removals to states, exempt killing that occurs from the trapping of other species, and lift restrictions on mortality and injury that occurs incidentally during activities not targeting the bears themselves.
Take action now! Send a comment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service telling them to keep grizzly bear protections strong and stop any weakening of safeguards for these iconic bears.
Note: this action alert will deliver your comment directly to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. You can edit the message directly in the message box. We strongly encourage making your comment your own! Feel free to use the below prompts and talking points (you might want to draft your comment somewhere else and come back to this page to submit when you're ready – note that there is a character limit of 4,000 characters).
Prompts:
Do you live or visit an area where grizzly bears can be found?
Why is grizzly bear conservation important to you? (When you think of this issue, are you concerned about the ecosystem impacts of losing grizzlies? Do you want to make sure this iconic species is still around for your children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren?)
Talking points:
Grizzly bears need strong protections against killing, injury, harassment, and the harmful impacts of habitat destruction.
I strongly support the USFWS decision to keep grizzly bears listed on the Endangered Species List.
When considering management options, I strongly encourage that the USFWS follows the best available science to ensure grizzly bears remain on the path toward recovery.
As you make decisions about grizzly bear management, it is critical that you take into consideration connectivity and the importance of ensuring grizzlies' ability to freely move without threat within the landscape.
On the ground management of grizzly bears should prioritize co-existence without the use of lethal action.
Increasing management flexibility and allowing for increased take of grizzly bears could undermine the incredible progress already made towards recovery of the species.
USFWS has proposed changes that undermine transparency and guardrails for critically important decisions about the circumstances under which grizzly bears can be killed, harmed, and harassed.
It is critical that there are ample protections in place to help foster connectivity and movement, a critical component to ensuring genetic diversity in the Lower 48 population of grizzly bears.