# Plain Language Summary: Science-Based Grizzly Bear Management Act of 2021

This bill would remove grizzly bears from the federal endangered species list in two specific regions: the Greater Yellowstone area (which spans parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho) and the Northern Continental Divide area (which covers parts of Montana and Idaho). Right now, grizzly bears in these regions are protected under the Endangered Species Act, which means there are strict rules about hunting them and managing their habitat. This bill would take away that federal protection and allow these two grizzly populations to be managed by individual states instead.

The practical effect is that once grizzlies are removed from the endangered list, states would have much more freedom to allow hunting of grizzly bears and to make their own decisions about wildlife management in these areas without federal oversight. Currently, hunting grizzlies is essentially prohibited because of their endangered status. The bill requires the Interior Department to finalize this delisting within 180 days of the law passing. Importantly, the bill also includes language saying that this decision cannot be challenged in court, which means environmental groups or others who oppose the delisting wouldn't be able to sue to stop it or reverse it.

People who support this bill argue that grizzly populations in these regions have recovered enough that they no longer need federal protection, and that states should have the authority to manage wildlife within their borders. Those opposed worry that removing federal protections could lead to overhunting and that grizzlies might not stay protected once states take over management. The bill essentially takes a major wildlife management decision out of federal hands and puts it into state hands, with no possibility of legal challenge.

Science-Based Grizzly Bear Management Act of 2021

Rosendale, Matthew M.

Science-Based Grizzly Bear Management Act of 2021 This bill directs the Department of the Interior to reissue the final rule relating to removing the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population of grizzly bears from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, published on June 30, 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 30502), without regard to any other provision of statute or regulation that applies to issuance of such rule. Such reissuance shall not be subject to judicial review. Interior shall issue a final rule removing the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem population of grizzly bears from the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife without regard to any other provision of statute or regulation that applies to the issuance of such rule. Such issuance shall also not be subject to judicial review.