Latest news with #InteragencyGrizzlyBearStudyTeam
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Yellowstone grizzly managers — dispersed, reduced by DOGE — shine little light on delisting battle
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Biologists with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team fit a grizzly bear with a radio collar in 2016. Once a bear is radio collared, biologists can track its movements with telemetry. (Photo courtesy of the United States Geological Survey) This story was first published by WyoFile on May 2, 2025. CODY — Two days of discussion about the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's grizzly population passed before anyone inquired about the status of the species the meeting was focused on. Under a court order in January, the Biden administration's Fish and Wildlife Service proposed continuing with Endangered Species Act protections in the Yellowstone region and all other portions of the Lower 48 where grizzlies reside. Shortly thereafter, pro-delisting leadership was installed by the Trump administration: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Brian Nesvik, a former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director who's now nominated to lead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For months, there's been little official word about what's going on with Fish and Wildlife's proposal, though the agency delayed the deadline for the public to provide feedback. In Cody this week, the topic was barely broached at the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee's semi-annual Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee meeting. It only came up because a member of the public, local resident Dewey Vanderhoff, asked 'where we're at in the overall picture with delisting' during the meeting's closing minutes. Matt Gould, the new leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, presents an update about the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's population of bruins at a spring 2025 meeting in Cody. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile) Hilary Cooley, Fish and Wildlife's grizzly bear recovery coordinator, pointed out the proposal on the table — and said she couldn't say much more. 'As far as what happens with that proposal, we're waiting for leadership to be installed,' Cooley said. 'Acting leadership is not interested in making decisions right now.' As of Friday, 27 pending nominees appeared above Nesvik on the U.S. Senate's Executive Calendar, which suggests the wait could drag on. The Trump administration also appointed another Wyomingite — mule deer advocate Josh Coursey — to a high Fish and Wildlife Service post, albeit one that doesn't require Senate confirmation. Even if expected Fish and Wildlife Service leaders don't attempt to pull back the existing continued-listing proposal administratively, legislative efforts are underway to delist grizzly bears, including from U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming. DOGE impacts work of Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team The gathering of Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear managers in Cody differed from typical meetings because of the turmoil and turnover the Trump administration has brought to the federal government via its Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. Most federal members of the committee attended remotely due to travel and spending restrictions. There were also new faces, goodbyes and discussion about what the diminished Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team can realistically accomplish going forward. 'One way or another, the USGS is not going to have the resources they've had in the past,' Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Administrator Ken McDonald told the group. 'At the November meeting, we better have a plan for the following spring.' Biologist Matt Gould, the study team's new leader, told the group that, despite changes in capacity, the committee's science arm will continue with grizzly monitoring, data collection and administering the new population model to assess bear numbers — last estimated at 1,050 in the ecosystem's core. Wyoming Game and Fish Department Chief Warden Dan Smith presents longtime Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader Frank van Manen with a plaque commemorating a career devoted to grizzly bear recovery. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile) The Cody meeting was the last as a full-time employee for Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team Leader Frank van Manen. The longtime federal biologist retired earlier than expected, though he is staying involved in an emeritus role. He helmed the group for 13 years. 'I know there are some challenges ahead, but keep up the good fight,' van Manen told the group. 'This endeavor has been successful for 50 years, for a good reason: Agencies working together.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Trump and Musk's DOGE ‘functionally destroying' historic Yellowstone grizzly science team
After swimming across the Snake River, one of Grizzly 399's subadult offspring shakes off excess water in May 2022. (Mark Gocke/Courtesy) A dismayed Chris Servheen is raising the alarm about what's become of federal scientists who have kept watch over the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's grizzly bear population for the last 55 years. The group of research biologists and technicians, known as the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, are being hamstrung at best and arguably dismantled, he told WyoFile. For decades, until his retirement in 2016, Sevheen worked closely with the study team while coordinating grizzly bear recovery for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 'It's functionally destroying the organization,' Servheen said. 'The study team has been in place since 1970 — over 50 years of work and experience and knowledge. It's going to just disappear and die.' Servheen's perplexed about what the Trump administration has to gain. 'How could anybody be so negligent and vile that they're trying to destroy something that has brought grizzly bears back from the edge of extinction?' he said. 'Why would you do that? It's just so destructive.' Led by Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency's dismantling started with a hiring freeze. Longtime supervisory wildlife biologist Mark Haroldson retired, and his position is not being filled, according to Servheen. Then, the team's longtime leader, Frank van Manen, announced an earlier-than-desired retirement. 'He didn't want to leave,' Servheen said of van Manen, who declined to comment. According to Servheen, van Manen's departure was related to the federal government's ongoing upheaval. 'They're putting fear into people,' Servheen said. 'That's basically evil, to do that to hard-working people who have been civil servants for decades.' The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team is part of the U.S. Geological Survey, and its website lists four other employees. Three are technicians, which are often seasonal, entry-level employees. The remaining staff biologist has been in the job about three years. Although located in Bozeman, many of the federal facility's researchers do work in Wyoming. 'They do all kinds of other stuff: brucellosis and chronic wasting disease and aquatic species,' Servheen said. 'It's a huge science center.' The planned closure has elicited protests. According to 42 retired or active biologists petitioned Montana's congressional delegation to use their influence to 'protect (the science center) and its employees from these unwarranted attacks by DOGE.' Federal offices located in Wyoming have not escaped the closures. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's tribal-focused Lander conservation office and a USGS Cheyenne water science station are among those that have been marked for the chopping block. WyoFile could not officially confirm impacts to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. Federal agencies under the Trump administration have declined or not responded to WyoFile's requests for more information on downsizing and office closures. An inquiry to a USGS public affairs officer on Thursday yielded no information about the matter. The Center for Biological Diversity has been pressing the federal agency for details as well. On Thursday, the environmental advocacy organization publicized a Freedom of Information Act request to gain more insight into the future of the federal grizzly team. Both recently departed veteran study team members — van Manen and Haroldson — are staying engaged in grizzly science in pro-bono emeritus roles, according to a source familiar with the situation. Nevertheless, Servheen worries that the hit to the science team could trickle down to the grizzly population — estimated at 1,000 or so bears in the Greater Yellowstone — that it's charged with studying. During the decades, federal researchers have played a pivotal role in improving understanding of the region's bruins, including completing studies that have helped make the case that grizzly bears are fully recovered and no longer require Endangered Species Act protection. They've also amassed mortality and other demographic datasets and compiled an annual report. 'The foundation of Yellowstone grizzly bear recovery has been built on science,' Servheen said. 'Removing that science eliminates our ability to maintain Yellowstone grizzly bears.'
