Judge Donald W. Molloy of the Federal District Court for Montana has been busy. A couple of weeks ago he denied a request that Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental groups made to stop the wolf hunt in Idaho. Today I read that Yellowstone grizzlies are being returned to the endangered species list.
Facing the combined pressures of habitat loss, hunters and climate change, 600 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park are going back on the threatened species list under a federal court order issued Monday.
The ruling highlighted climate change's devastation to whitebark pine forests, which produce nuts that some grizzlies rely upon as a mainstay.
With hundreds of thousands of the trees dead or dying over the last two decades, bears striking out in search of new food sources increasingly are being shot in conflicts with humans.
"There is a connection between whitebark pine and grizzly survival," U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy wrote in Monday's ruling. (emphasis added; Associated Press)
Leave a comment