U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Alan Johnson ruled this past Friday that officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have until January 20 to determine whether grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem should lose their protections under the Endangered Species Act.

USFWS was supposed to issue their decision this past July, but kicked the can down the road to a new self-imposed deadline of January 31, 2025. The agency is already two years behind the original target date to announce their findings. Wyoming officials, eager to take over management of the grizzly population of the GYE within their state, were willing to wait no longer. As was Johnson.

The state of Wyoming sued the feds in 2023 to force a decision, and Johnson's ruling last week finally gave the USFWS 90 days to make their announcement about whether or not Yellowstone bruins will be managed as a "threatened" species.

“[T]he Court finds it proper to require FWS to issue its 12-month finding within 45 days of this Order,” Johnson wrote in a legal filing. “To be sure, this deadline will allow FWS to take its mandatory action nearly two years after it was initially due, as well as within a mere few weeks of the schedule it already indicated it could meet on its own.”

Montana and Idaho have also issued requests to the USFWS to delist the grizzly bear.

Grizzlies in the GYE have been considered and managed as a threatened species for 49 years. But their numbers have rebounded significantly.

According to a USFWS report from 2022, there were an estimated 965 grizzlies in the GYE. That's up from between 136 to 300 when the bears were first listed in 1975. The same report listed three criteria to consider the grizzly recovery to be successful, and all three have been met.

Before any control of grizzly management is passed from the feds to the states, a series of public comment periods will be opened. There will almost certainly be legal challenges from animal welfare and advocacy groups, in an attempt to prevent open hunting season on grizzlies in the GYE.

Grizzlies in the GYE wander in and out of Yellowstone National Park, so what affects themn in the GYE will potentially impact their presence within the national park as well.