Yellowstone grizzly bears have been taken off the endangered species list By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela staff on 06.29.17 Word Count 641 Level 850L Grizzly bears forage in a field of blueberries in Denali National Park in Alaska. NPS Photo/Jacob W. Frank The government has protected grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park for more than 40 years. That will start to change soon. The Department of the Interior is in charge of land owned by the United States government. Ryan Zinke is the leader of the department. He said this week there are plans to remove grizzlies living in the Yellowstone area from Endangered Species Act protection. The change will be entered next week. It can take effect 30 days after that. Grizzly bears were protected because people feared they might die out. Their numbers have increased in recent years. Several nature groups and Native American tribes objected to removing the bears from the endangered list. They feared delisting would lead states to open up hunting on the bears in the protected Yellowstone zone. The area reaches into Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1
The Bears Still Need Protection Jonathan Proctor works for Defenders of Wildlife. He said that populations of grizzlies remain in distant ecosystems and need continued protection to grow and connect with other populations. An ecosystem is a community of living things interacting with their environment. The increase in the Yellowstone bear population shows how we can bring a species back from the edge, he said. However, we are concerned about the actions of states after a delisting. We can t let the work of saving these bears go down the drain. Ben Nuvamsa, former head of the Hopi tribe, was angered by the decision. He called the move to delist the grizzly a step back to "Old West frontier" thinking. The grizzly bear has been a religious symbol for all tribal nations, he said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service promised that it would have "full and meaningful" discussions with them, he said. "It turns out, those were only empty promises. Government Will Focus On Helping Other Species Hilary Cooley works for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Grizzly bears number close to 700 in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which expands well beyond the park s boundaries, she said. She said that in 1975, the bears numbered about 130. They had been hunted and killed for decades. The protection of the Endangered Species Act allowed the grizzly population to climb. Now the population is more than five times what it was 42 years ago, Cooley said. The Fish and Wildlife Service has met its goals, she said. Removing the Yellowstone population from the endangered species list, Cooley said, allows the government to focus on helping hundreds of other species. They also are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Some are other grizzly populations. She said that there are about 1,000 grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. The wildlife agency next will consider whether to delist grizzlies in that region, she said. There are four other areas in the Washington-Idaho-Montana area where grizzlies have protection. However, in two of them, scientists haven t reported any bear populations. No Hunting Allowed Yet Grizzly bears as a species will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states. After an area is taken off the endangered list, the bears would still be protected outside that area. They just will not be protected within the area. Rebecca Riley is a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She said it s too soon for hunting. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2
This population is still so small that any hunting would be a problem, she said. We need the population to continue to grow. Grizzlies once numbered about 50,000. That was back when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the West in the early 1800s. As cities expanded, the bear population dropped steeply. Before being listed as endangered, the bears were hunted for sport. Several areas, including California, once had large grizzly populations. California, however, hasn t seen a grizzly since the 1990s, although it is the symbol on the state s flag. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3
Quiz 1 Read the section "The Bears Still Need Protection." Select the sentence from the section that BEST shows HOW the Endangered Species Act can help many animal populations. He said that populations of grizzlies remain in distant ecosystems and need continued protection to grow and connect with other populations. An ecosystem is a community of living things interacting with their environment. The increase in the Yellowstone bear population shows how we can bring a species back from the edge, he said. He called the move to delist the grizzly a step back to "Old West frontier" thinking. 2 Read the section "Government Will Focus On Helping Other Species." Which sentence from the article BEST supports the idea that the government's goal has been met? The protection of the Endangered Species Act allowed the grizzly population to climb. Now the population is more than five times what it was 42 years ago, Cooley said. She said that there are about 1,000 grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. There are four other areas in the Washington-Idaho-Montana area where grizzlies have protection. 3 Based on the introduction [paragraphs 1-5], which of the following statements is TRUE? Native American tribes do not fear grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park. Nature groups support delisting the grizzly bear outside of the Yellowstone zone. The U.S. government plans to take most animals off the endangered list. The Department of the Interior is in charge of national parks in the U.S. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4
4 HOW did the growth of cities in the West affect the grizzly bear population? Since people in the cities needed food, many grizzlies were hunted. When cities were built in the West, grizzlies got more aggressive. As more people moved to the West, grizzly numbers decreased. Where there were many grizzlies, people avoided the area. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 5