Idaho Sues to Halt Federal Plan to Release Grizzlies

The state of Idaho sued Friday to stop the federal government’s plan to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot Mountains, arguing that it threatens visitors to the remote area and ignores the state’s sovereignty.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and the state filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. He reiterated his warnings that the bear releases could be the first time a federal agency’s actions lead directly to deaths or injuries to humans.

“Despite strong opposition from the Idaho Legislature, our congressional delegation, the Idaho Land Board and hundreds of our citizens, the Interior Department insisted on moving forward with this plan,” Kempthorne said.

“The lawsuit is just a political move on the part of extractive industries” such as logging or mining, responded Mike Bader, director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies conservation group. “We disagree with the inflammatory language Gov. Kempthorne uses, such as calling the bears ‘flesh-eating carnivores.’ I don’t think it’s warranted.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to release five bears a year for five years in the Bitterroot ecosystem of east-central Idaho and western Montana.

The administration attacked Idaho’s sovereignty by pursuing a legally flawed National Environmental Policy Act process of study and public involvement, attorney Al Lance said.

The suit says the program “unconstitutionally imposes obligations on the state’s executive branch of government, usurps the state of Idaho’s sovereign and traditional right to regulate land use and fish and wildlife within its borders, interferes with the state of Idaho’s duty to protect its citizens from physical harm, and compromises the ESA protection currently afforded existing grizzly bears.”

Idaho Fish and Game Commission Chairman Fred Wood applauded the suit, saying the board has long opposed the reintroduction as a potential danger to hunters.

But Bader said there are grizzlies in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Area and no one has ever been killed by a bear within its boundaries.

He added that wilderness areas and grizzlies are a national matter and a majority of Americans supports reviving the species.