rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/dont-let-trump-weaken-grizzly-protections?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-dont-let-trump-weaken-grizzly-protections' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Animal Commons https://actionnetwork.org/groups/animal-commons https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/453/984/normal/grizzly_and_cubs.jpg Grizzly bears have fought their way back from the brink of extinction—but their recovery is far from complete. Now the Trump administration wants to weaken the protections that helped save them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now led by former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director Brian Nesvik, has proposed rewriting the grizzly bear’s Endangered Species Act rules to create a tiered system giving federal, state, and tribal wildlife agencies more authority to kill, capture, relocate, and otherwise manage grizzlies through agreements approved by the Service. The proposal would also expand exceptions to the ESA’s prohibition on “take”—a legal term that includes killing, harming, harassing, trapping, and capturing protected animals. Agencies could receive broader authority to respond to conflicts, allow additional incidental take, and conduct other activities with less direct federal oversight. Nesvik’s background matters: He previously led a state agency that pushed to remove federal grizzly protections and transfer management authority to Wyoming, raising serious concerns about weakening safeguards while recovery is still incomplete. Grizzlies would still be called “threatened.” But that label will mean less if the government simultaneously makes it easier to kill them. The administration has also said it may issue a separate decision on grizzlies’ listing status, potentially creating a pathway toward removing ESA protections altogether. That danger is compounded by grizzlies’ slow reproduction. Females generally do not begin reproducing until several years into their lives, have small litters, and may go years between births. Their populations cannot quickly replace bears lost to shootings, traps, livestock conflicts, vehicle collisions, and government killing. Every preventable death can set recovery back. Grizzlies still occupy only a fraction of their historic range, and several populations remain isolated. Montana’s management plan says the state would not actively manage for grizzly presence between core populations—even though those connecting landscapes are essential to genuine recovery. Livestock conflicts and trapping already threaten bears, while the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has experienced record mortality in recent years. Grizzly conservation must mean reducing human-caused deaths, reconnecting populations, protecting habitat, and giving these slow-reproducing animals the time and space they need to recover. Please submit a public comment by August 17. Tell the Fish and Wildlife Service to withdraw the July 2026 revisions, reject expanded exceptions for bears harmed or killed in traps set for other animals, invest in nonlethal conflict prevention, protect migration corridors, and keep grizzly recovery—not state control—as the goal. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/dont-let-trump-weaken-grizzly-protections