Federal judge restores grizzly protections, canceling bear hunt !! This restores federal protections for the bears removed by Interior Department!!💕 .
. "This case is not about the ethics of hunting, and it is not about solving human- or livestock-grizzly conflicts,” the judge wrote.
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U.S. judge Monday ordered federal protections restored for grizzly bears in the Northern Rocky Mountains, a move that blocks the first grizzly hunts planned in the lower 48 states in almost three decades.
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Wyoming and Idaho had been on the cusp of allowing hunters to kill up to 23 bears this fall. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Billings, Mont., had twice delayed the hunts, and the latest order blocking them was due to expire later this week. The hunts would have been the first in U.S. outside Alaska since 1991.
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#JudgeChristensen wrote in his ruling that the case was "not about the ethics of hunting." Rather, he said, it was about whether federal officials adequately considered threats to the species' long-term recovery when they lifted protections for more than 700 bears living around Yellowstone National Park.
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He noted that an estimated 50,000 bears once roamed the contiguous U.S. and said it would be "simplistic at best and disingenuous at worst" not to consider the status of grizzlies outside the Yellowstone region, one of the few areas where they have bounced back.
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State and federal officials reacted with disappointment. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said the ruling provided evidence of flaws in the Endangered Species Act and the need for Congress to make changes.
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@gpwalshphotography .
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