Interior Asks Court to Slow Wyoming Efforts to Delist Grizzlies

Wyoming doesn’t have standing to claim that the US Fish and Wildlife Service failed to respond to its petition to remove the Yellowstone grizzly bear’s Endangered Species Act protections, the Department of the Interior told a federal court.

“This is not some mere procedural oversight or a technicality,” the agency said. “There are legitimate questions as to how Wyoming has been harmed by the delay in responding to its petition for delisting.”

In its January 2022 request to delist the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Wyoming said that grizzlies in the Great Yellowstone Ecosystem have expanded beyond ...