Interior Secretary Zinke announced Thursday that the administration would move to delist grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem from Endangered Species Act protections/NPS, Jim Peaco

A decision to lift Endangered Species Act protection from grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem came Thursday, just after a group held up the death of a well-known Yellowstone National Park grizzly as a warning regarding the fate of other grizzlies in the ecosystem if they are delisted.

Conservation groups are expected to head to court to block the delisting, which would give the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho authority to manage grizzlies as they see fit.

“This achievement stands as one of America’s great conservation successes; the culmination of decades of hard work and dedication on the part of state, tribal, federal and private partners,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement announcing the decision. 

While the grizzly population in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem could be as high as 1,100 individuals, conservationists disagree that they should lose ESA protections.

"The reason the Yellowstone grizzly bear has increased in numbers and range so well is due to the protection of the Endangerd Species Act and decades of work of many agencies, landowners, and organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, to reduce conflicts by securing attractants across the landscape and therefore protecting both humans and grizzly bears," said Jonathan Proctor, Defender's Rockies and Plains program director during a phone call from his Denver office.

At Defender's Washington headquarters, President and CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark said her organization would closely study the delisting decision, which is expected to be posted in the Federal Register soon, before deciding how to respond.

"... we are concerned over how grizzly bears and their habitat will be managed after delisting. We cannot allow the decades of work and investment to save these bears go down the drain," she said in a prepared statement. "Defenders of Wildlife is going through the delisting rule with a fine-toothed comb, and we will hold federal and state wildlife and land management agencies accountable for strong stewardship and management of grizzly bears and their habitat post delisting."

Just hours before the delisting announcement was made, a group opposed to delisting released the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's investigative report into the death of "Scarface," a grizzly boar of considerable renown that was naturally in his twilight years when he was killed by an elk hunter on November 18, 2015. In the report, which the group obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the hunter admitted killing the bear in self-defense from about 10 feet away.

The hunter, whose name was redacted in the report, told Fish and Wildlife Service agents that he was hiking alone in the dark down a trail just outside the park's northern boundary when he encountered Scarface.

"All of a sudden, I don't know if I heard her (sic), or just looked, or somehow, she was just there," the hunter, who was making his way by headlamp, told the agents. "And close enough that she made noise, growled, and I saw her well enough and that it's time to sling lead. It didn't take too long to figure out what the hell was going on."

The bear, known as No. 211 to wildlife biologists, was shot at least twice, and possibly three times, in the Little Trail Creek drainage north of Gardiner, Montana, on the Gallatin National Forest.

Members of the group that obtained the investigative report said Thursday that more grizzly bears could be killed by hunters if they didn't have to face criminal charges for killing a species covered by the ESA.

"Although Scarface and all other Yellowstone grizzlies have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1975, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to remove protections, leaving the states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana in charge of the grizzly's fate," the group said in a release. "What happened to Scarface has implications for bear management after delisting."

Kelly Thompson, one of those who sought the investigative report, said officials in the three states that surround Yellowstone should require hunters to carry, and know how to use, pepper spray rather than a gunshot in encounters with grizzlies.

"Bear spray has been proven to work in over 90 percent of all incidents involving close bear encounters," she said.

Kat Brekken added that Scarface's death could have been avoided "with the basic commonsense, and known protocols in grizzly bear country."

"As a hunter," she added, "you receive oodles of information from the states that say hiking along, at night, in an area with bears and carrying only a gun and no bear pepper spray, is just asking for trouble."

At Earthjustice, attorneys planned to scrutinize the delisting decision.

“The grizzly is an iconic symbol of wildness, and the Yellowstone area is one of the last places in the lower 48 states where we can still see a grizzly in the wild,” said Tim Preso, Earthjustice’s managing attorney for our Northern Rockies regional office who has been working for more than a decade to protect the grizzly bear. “The government’s campaign to remove protections provided by the Endangered Species Act overlooked important conservation issues and denied public comment on key points. We will closely examine this decision, and are prepared to defend the grizzly if necessary.”

The Earthjustice release said the Fish and Wildlife Service has been trying since 2007 to delist the iconic bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Earthjustice challenged an earlier grizzly delisting decision in court and won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011, the group said.

Applauding the news was U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

“I commend this administration and the Department of the Interior for delisting the grizzly bear even though it should have been done years ago. States are far more capable of managing the grizzly population than the federal government," said Rep. Bishop, R-Utah. "The time it took to get this delisting is the latest evidence that reform of ESA is sorely needed. Recovery and delisting — and responsible state management that will prevent listings in the first place — must be the goals of ESA, not lifetime sentences on the endangered list fraught with frivolous litigation.”

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva and several tribal leaders spoke out today against the decision.

“The Interior Department has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by delisting Yellowstone grizzlies prematurely and without adequate tribal consultation or safeguards to ensure the bears’ long-term survival,” Rep. Grijalva, D-Arizona, said. “Delisting the grizzly ignores the objections of scientists and tribal leaders who have raised concerns over the irreparable harm to tribal sovereignty and self-determination throughout the delisting process. Silencing tribal voices to benefit trophy hunters and the livestock industry is wrong and unconstitutional, and will ultimately end up in court.”

In the coming weeks, Grijalva plans to introduce legislation offering protection to grizzly bears regardless of their status under the ESA and guarantee tribes a seat at the table when state and federal agencies are making decisions that impact grizzly populations.

If the delisting decision stands, hunters still will not be able to hunt the bears in Yellowstone National Park. While Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk has opposed the delisting strategy in the past, Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Dave Vela has supported it.