Billboards are being erected to build public opposition to grizzly bear hunts in Wyoming and Idaho/EMC Outdoor

Old-fashioned social media -- billboards -- are being used to garner public opposition to grizzly bear hunts planned for this fall in Wyoming and Idaho.

Five billboards that are expected to be seen more than a million times by people in three states started going up Thursday as part of a campaign to stop the planned trophy hunts. The first billboards went up today in Casper, Wyo. and near Fort Collins, Colo. Others are coming soon to Cody, Wyo. and Boise, Idaho.

The billboards feature a bear with its paw raised, the statement “I'm not a trophy” and the URL www.StopTheGrizHunt.org.

“Wyoming and Idaho should be absolutely ashamed for allowing some of America’s most iconic bears to be senselessly gunned down,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Millions of people come to Yellowstone National Park every year to see these grizzlies. But the second these bears step out of the park, they could be shot dead by a hunter’s bullet. It’s ugly and reprehensible.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Trump administration stripped Endangered Species Act protection from Yellowstone’s grizzlies in June 2017. That move paved the way for grizzly hunts in Wyoming and Idaho that are scheduled to begin September 1. More than 20 grizzlies could be shot and killed, including as many as 13 females.

The billboards will be up for at least a month. In addition, there will be a national “day of action” on August 7, a petition to Secretary Zinke to immediately reinstate federal protections, public rallies, and wildlife advocates at select spots in Yellowstone National Park, speaking with visitors and urging them to oppose the hunt.

“Grizzly bears survive in less than 5 percent of their historic habitat. The last thing they need is to be shot just so someone can put a grizzly head on their wall or a rug on their floor,” Santarsiere said. “This trophy hunt goes against everything we stand for when it comes to saving species from extinction.”

The Center and allies are also in court challenging the Trump administration’s decision to strip federal protection from Yellowstone grizzlies. The next hearing is in Missoula, Mont., on August 30.