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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced that it will begin a comprehensive Endangered Species Act (ESA) status review of the grizzly bear in two specific regions of the lower 48 states. The announcement, in today’s Federal Register, follows the agency’s review of three petitions to delist the bear, two of which they say presented “substantial, credible information” that may warrant action.

New public opinion research from Defenders of Wildlife reveals that 80% of voters polled support increasing funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System, the nation’s only system of lands dedicated to wildlife conservation.

Conservation groups and other wildlife advocates applaud the Biden administration’s announcement today that it is restarting the process required to return grizzly bears to the North Cascades Ecosystem (NCE) - a large network of mostly protected public lands that spans from northwest Washington State into British Columbia and includes North Cascades National Park.

A federal District Court in Alaska ruled on Sept. 30 that a National Park Service rule allowing hunting practices like killing brown bear sows and cubs in their dens on national preserves in Alaska was poorly reasoned and arbitrary. The decision allows the rule to remain in place while the Interior Department and Park Service revise regulations.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that next week it will propose reinstating the national Roadless Area Conservation Rule in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. The move would restrict development on roughly 9.3 million acres in North America’s largest temperate rainforest.