From the Friday, March 23, 2007 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .

Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park no longer need Endangered Species Act protection, the federal government said Thursday.

The Yellowstone area of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho had an estimated 136 to 312 grizzlies when the species was listed as threatened in 1975, but has more than 500 of the bears today, the government said.

“The grizzly is a large predator that requires a great deal of space, and conserving such animals is a challenge in today’s world,” Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said in a statement announcing the decision. “I believe all Americans should be proud that, as a nation, we had the will and the ability to protect and restore this symbol of the wild.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to issue a final rule on March 29 to delist the bears and the rule will take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register, officials said. The Interior Department announced in 2005 that it intended to delist grizzly bears around Yellowstone.

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