The federal government moved Tuesday to give states and tribal agencies more authority over grizzly bear management, with the governors of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming standing alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at a field south of Bozeman, Montana, to announce the proposal.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a proposed rule targeting the protective regulations under Section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act. The rule does not remove grizzly bears from the threatened species list, nor does it change the geographic boundaries of the current management plan. Instead, it creates two tiers of expanded exceptions to restrictions on the “taking” of grizzlies, with those exceptions applying broadly to state and tribal wildlife agencies.

Importantly, the proposed rule does not allow state or tribal wildlife managers to establish a hunting season for grizzlies.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little was among the officials present for the announcement. “Idaho has proven we can successfully conserve grizzly bears while responsibly managing wildlife and protecting our communities,” Little said.

The rule is set to be published in the Federal Register on July 17, triggering a 30-day public comment period.

Grizzly bears were listed as a threatened species in 1975, when an estimated 300 to 400 animals remained in the wild. The population has since rebounded to more than 2,000 bears along the Continental Divide, a recovery advocates on all sides of the debate acknowledge.

The proposal builds on a lengthy regulatory history. In January 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected petitions from Montana and Wyoming that had sought to end the “threatened” designation entirely. A draft rule had previously proposed managing grizzlies as a single population across Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, drawing more than 200,000 public comments. The Trump administration also pushed back a deadline to determine whether Yellowstone-area grizzlies should retain their current protections.

The new proposed rule represents a middle path: keeping federal ESA protections formally in place while expanding the practical authority of state and tribal managers to respond to problem bears and manage conflicts with livestock and communities.

Not everyone welcomes the shift. Greg LeDonne, a critic of the proposal, argued the move is driven by politics rather than conservation science. “This is a decision being made for political reasons, it is not based on science, in the best interest of the survival of the species, or in compliance with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act,” he said.

Supporters counter that state agencies such as Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Idaho Fish and Game have demonstrated they can manage large predator populations effectively. The grizzly population’s dramatic growth from near-extinction levels to more than 2,000 animals is frequently cited as evidence that recovery goals have been met, and that continued federal micromanagement is unnecessary.

For North Idaho communities, particularly in areas where grizzly bear territory overlaps with timber, ranching, and recreational land, the question of who controls wildlife management decisions carries real consequences. State-level management would allow faster responses to conflicts and greater weight given to local economic and safety concerns compared to a federal process that can take years to navigate.

The rule will face scrutiny during the public comment window, and legal challenges are considered likely given the scale of opposition the earlier draft proposal attracted. Whether the final rule survives court review may ultimately determine how much authority Idaho and its neighbors actually gain over one of the region’s most politically charged wildlife species.

The announcement comes as the federal government has also been weighing expanded authority for emergency logging across millions of acres of forest land in Montana and North Idaho, part of a broader trend of the Trump administration pushing management decisions closer to states and local land managers.

Public comments on the proposed grizzly rule can be submitted through the federal rulemaking process following its publication in the Federal Register on July 17.