Feds to Talk About Delisting Grizzlies

Mar 22, 06:36 PM

Current Headlines: By The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Mar. 22--Interior Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett will have a news media teleconference this morning to discuss the possible delisting of Yellowstone grizzly bears.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in 2005 to remove grizzly bears from the threatened species list in the Greater Yellowstone area, which includes eastern Idaho. That could lead the state to eventually open a hunting season on grizzly bears, although the state has no immediate plans.

Grizzly bear numbers increased from about 200 in the early 1980s to more than 600 bears today.

They are spread across more than 9 million acres of habitat -- an area the size of Connecticut with hundreds of miles of mountains, forests and rangeland in and around Yellowstone National Park.

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