U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Posts Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Delisting Rule Peer Reviews
DENVER – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has received five independent peer reviews on the Yellowstone grizzly bear population proposed delisting rule. The peer reviewers all agree that the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) grizzly bear population is biologically recovered and the 2016 Conservation Strategy for the Grizzly Bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which is the post-delisting management plan, is sufficient to maintain a recovered population.
An outside, third-party contractor selected the peer reviewers based on specific scientific expertise that the Service identified as being important for reviewing the analyses in our proposed rule. The peer reviewers were selected based on their knowledge of and experience in large carnivore ecology and management with expertise in one or more of the following categories: population ecology, management, demographics, conservation, and population genetics.
The peer reviews will be posted at http://www.regulations.gov, and can be accessed now at http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/grizzlybear.php.
Once the Service receives the post-delisting management plans from the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, we plan to reopen the comment period so the public has an opportunity to comment on the proposed rule in light of both the peer reviews and the state plans.
