16. Department of the Interior · Notable
Delist the grizzly bear in the Yellowstone and Continental Divide ecosystems
Printed page 534 16. Department of the Interior
“Delist the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems and defend to the Supreme Court of the United States the agency’s fact-based decision to do so.”
What has happened
- Not started
The grizzly bear has not been delisted in the Greater Yellowstone or Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems. What the Fish and Wildlife Service did on 2026-07-17 was reopen the comment period on the January 2025 proposal with "substantive changes" to the section 4(d) protective regulations, adding management flexibility where recovery benchmarks are met — and it says so: "At this time, we are not proposing any revisions to, nor asking for additional comments on, any other components of our January 15, 2025, proposed rule for the grizzly bear, including the proposed grizzly bear distinct population segment (DPS)." Interior's own headline calls the proposal one that "maintains Endangered Species Act protections". Two senators quoted in the announcement describe it as "a good first step" toward delisting, which is the honest measure of it. Progress is measured on this ask, and the ask is delisting.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Interior announced this as returning grizzly management to the West, and the Federal Register notice says plainly that the listing is not what is being changed.
Checked against the full 2026 Unified Agenda on reginfo.gov (Interior, agencyCd 1000, active stages, read 2026-09-01; agenda published in the Federal Register 2026-08-14). The January 2025 proposal carries RIN 1018-BI14, “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision of Listed Entity for the Grizzly Bear” (FWS, Final Rule Stage, Previously Published, final action projected 07/2026, and not printed in the Federal Register agenda). Its abstract confirms what the reopened comment period said: the Service “will make a final determination on our proposal to revise the listing of the grizzly bear … in the lower-48 United States … with protective regulations under section 4(d)”. That is a revision of the listed entity, not a delisting of the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide populations, and consolidating them into one lower-48 entity runs against the ask rather than toward it. A dated agenda entry counts as attempted only where it names this ask’s object; this one names the listing and points the other way, so the Status is unchanged.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- Endangered Species Act listing of the grizzly bear
- ID
- 1504