Two conservation groups are threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to allow 72 grizzly bears to be killed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest of Wyoming/NPS file

Plans to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a bid to prevent grizzly bears from being killed because they might prey on livestock in the Bridger-Teton Forest in Wyoming have been announced by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club.

The potential litigation was prompted by the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to allow 72 grizzly bears to be killed over a ten-year period  to accommodate livestock grazing in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The forest encompasses the headwaters of the Green River, an area important for Yellowstone ecosystem grizzly bear recovery as well as elk, deer and pronghorn migrations.

“Rather than requiring the livestock industry to do more to prevent conflicts with grizzlies, the feds are just authorizing more bears to be killed,” said Andrea Santarsiere, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wiping out Yellowstone grizzlies to make way for cattle to graze for cheap on public lands just doesn’t make any sense. These treasured bears deserve better.”

The Endangered Species Act requires that the Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service analyze the grazing program’s risk to grizzly bears. In its 2019 “biological opinion” providing this analysis, the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that “jeopardy” to the grizzly can be prevented if the Forest Service and the livestock grazing permittees implement certain conservation measures.

The notice letter of the threatened lawsuit maintains that the conservation measures adopted by the federal agencies are inadequate and unenforceable and therefore illegal. For example, Fish and Wildlife does not require ranchers to haul off livestock carcasses when cattle die from other causes. Instead, they need only haul carcasses half a mile from the nearest road, where they are likely to be scavenged by grizzly bears and wolves, the Center said in a release.

“For decades, the Fish and Wildlife Service has repeatedly increased the number of grizzly bears that can be killed as a result of livestock grazing in the Upper Green. There are proven, effective methods to prevent conflicts between bears and livestock. Authorizing the killing of 72 grizzly bears over the next 10 years — which doubles the number of bears that have been killed over the past 20 years in the Upper Green — without requiring anything of livestock producers to actually prevent conflicts is unconscionable and ineffective,” said Bonnie Rice, senior representative with Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign.

The agencies have 60 days to respond to the notice of intent to sue, after which the conservation groups may file a lawsuit.