After missing their July deadline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has been ordered to decide whether or not to delist grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) by Jan. 20, 2025. U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Alan Johnson issued the order following a Wyoming petition filed last year that required FWS to “honor a missed one-year deadline” to decide if GYE grizzlies should still be considered “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, according to WyoFile.

“[T]he Court finds it proper to require FWS to issue its 12-month finding within 45 days of this Order,” Johnson wrote in a legal filing directed at outgoing U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and FWS Director Martha Williams. “To be sure, this deadline will allow FWS to take its mandatory action nearly two years after it was initially due, as well as within a mere few weeks of the schedule it already indicated it could meet on its own.”

Technically, FWS already had a “self-imposed administrative deadline of Jan. 31, 2025,” according to WyoFile. This new 45-day deadline will “prevent the Service from again failing to meet its own internal schedule.”

While delisting could open up potential hunting seasons in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, if FWS meets the new 45-day deadline, it’s still only the beginning. Once determined grizzlies should be delisted, the agency would need to draft a proposed rule, approve a final rule, and hold public input meetings before any final approval or forward progress.

Regardless, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon was optimistic following Johnson’s ruling.

“With the bear recovered, it is long past time for GYE grizzly bear management to be entrusted to the states,” said Gordon. “The USFWS can no longer stand unresponsive to our petition to move forward with the delisting process.”

Grizzlies were federally listed in the lower 48 in 1975 due to decreased populations because of human-caused mortality, habitat loss, and habitat alteration, according to the National Park Service. However, as of 2022, 965 grizzlies inhabit the greater Yellowstone area, with 150 to 200 within the park itself.

Stay tuned to GOHUNT for further updates.