52-Year-Old Federally-Led Grizzly Study Team May Be On Chopping Block

A federally-led grizzly bear study team that has spearheaded bear research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem since 1973 could be on the chopping block as cuts to federal programs continue.

The group’s official title is a mouthful: The U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST). 

It’s based in Bozeman, Montana, and partners with numerous agencies and organizations, including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

How any changes in the study team’s status might affect grizzly management in Wyoming isn’t yet clear.

Game and Fish large carnivore specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily that grizzly bear conservation will remain a priority. 

“We've already met a few times as the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team to ensure that we have a path forward regardless of what may or may not happen,” he said.

“All the signatories of the grizzly bear conservation strategy are committed to implementing its objectives for the future to ensure we're collecting the information we need to evaluate the population on an annual basis and demonstrate the continued success of grizzly bear conservation,” Thompson added. 

A message to IGBST supervisory research biologist Frank van Manen wasn’t answered by publication time.

Team’s Status Seems Shaky

Grizzly biologist Chris Servheen of Missoula, Montana, said in a statement Thursday that the IGBST might be dismantled in ongoing federal cuts by the Trump administration.

Dismantling the team could derail grizzly bear recovery and possible delisting of the bears, said Servheen, who led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s grizzly bear recovery program for 35 years before retiring in 2016.

“Destroying the USGS study team is a disastrous move done by people have no idea what they are destroying or why,” he said in the statement, issued by the Center for Biological Diversity. 

The Center For Biological Diversity stated that it’s filed a Freedom Of Information Act request regarding the study team’s future. 

The IGBST focuses on the status and trends of the grizzly population, as well as the bears’ patterns of habitat use in Greater Yellowstone area of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

The team also issues grizzly bear mortality reports, which chronicle the number and causes of grizzly deaths throughout the ecosystem. 

Along with Wyoming Game and Fish, its partner organizations include the Fish and Wildlife Service, wildlife agencies in Montana and Idaho, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribal Fish and Game Department, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. 

‘Tremendous Faith In Wyoming Game And Fish’

The IGBST has been the go-to for information on grizzly bears, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates Executive Director Kristin Combs told Cowboy State Daily.

Although she hasn’t always agreed with the team’s policy recommendations, “ISBST has been the place where grizzly bear research was coming from,” she said.

“It would be tragic to lose those decades of experience” among the team’s scientists, she added. 

One possible good outcome of cutbacks at the federal level would be Wyoming being “put further in the driver’s seat of managing wildlife, including grizzlies,” noted Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich told Cowboy State Daily.

“I have tremendous faith in the Wyoming Game and Fish department,” he added. 

What About Griz Delisting?

Another uncertainty is, if the IGBST is cut, how that could affect efforts to delist grizzlies in the Lower 48. 

Servheen and others are against delisting grizzlies anytime soon.

Servheen has argued that grizzly range is still to fragmented and there isn’t enough genetic exchange between subpopulations, such as Greater Yellowstone bears and the Northern Continental Divide grizzly population.  

Former Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik openly endorsed delisting bears, stating that the grizzly population is thriving and Game and Fish is ready to take over full management of the bears in Wyoming. 

Nesvik is in line to be the new director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, pending approval from the U.S. Senate.

His successor at Game and Fish, Director Angi Bruce, also stated that she strongly favors delisting Wyoming grizzlies.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.