Interior Won’t Protect Yellowstone Bison as Groups Threaten Suit

The Trump administration has decided not to protect the Yellowstone bison under the Endangered Species Act, and environmental groups asking the federal government to protect the bison from extinction expect to challenge the decision in court.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Sept. 5 that not enough data exists showing that the bison—icons of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho—are sufficiently threatened to warrant protection.

The Yellowstone bison are among the last remaining genetically pure descendants of the original wild bison herd that once roamed the West, numbering in the tens of millions. Other bison found in ...