Searching group say bear hunts – LEX18.com

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – The National Rifle Association and also a sport hunting team want to ensure their members can hunt grizzly bears from the three-state region around Yellowstone National Park after the creatures missing U.S. protections.

Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are still thinking of limited trophy hunts for grizzlies outside the park in future years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service revoked the species’ threatened status in July.

Conservation groups have resisted to restore protections, and now the NRA and Safari Club International have requested U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen to let them intervene in the case.

Several of the bands’ members said in affidavits filed by their attorneys that searching allow states to better handle the creatures, would assist the economy of the region and enhance security.

“Having the capacity to hunt grizzlies would be great for business. I’d also personally seek a grizzly if given an opportunity to accomplish this,” said Edwin Johnson, a 70-year-old searching outfitter who resides in Gardiner, Montana. “They have to get hunted so that they dread the odor of people, rather than following it as they do today.”

An estimated 700 bears live in and around Yellowstone National Park. Attacks on humans have increased because the creatures rebounded from extermination that was widespread in the previous century.

Although many are expected to be merged into one case in coming months, at least six lawsuits are currently pending in Illinois and Montana.

An attorney for environmentalists in one of the Montana instances said no decision was made on whether to battle the effort by the NRA and Safari Club to intervene.

“We are dedicated to doing everything we can to prevent trophy hunting of grizzly bears leaving Yellowstone National Park,” said Matthew Bishop together with the Western Environmental Law Center, who’s representing WildEarth Guardians.

Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matthewbrownap.

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(National Park Service through AP, File). FILE– This undated file photo provided by the National Park Service shows a bear walking across a form in Montana. The National Rifle Association and Safari Club International, a sport hunting team, are a.. .

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