Grizzly Bear Killed Over Bait in Idaho, Legal Action Initiated

On June 18, the same day the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals thought it was too far-fetched that a grizzly bear could be killed over a black bear bait station, news broke that a hunter had just killed a threatened grizzly bear at a bait station on national forest land near the Lower St. Joe River in Idaho.

Bait stations, which typically contain a combination of donuts, dog food, syrup, molasses, popcorn, and meat scraps, are used by ‘hunters’ to lure black bears in for an easy kill. Often the hunter will monitor their bait station with game cameras.

Idaho and Wyoming are the only states that allow bear baiting within the range of grizzly bears—and Idaho even continues to allow bear baiting in Wilderness! The Forest Service once regulated bear baiting practices on national forests, but in the 1990s, the agency ceded control to the states. At least 23 grizzly bears, which are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, have been killed over bait since then, including some trying to return to their historic home range in and around the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of central Idaho. Even more grizzly bears have been killed by state and federal agencies after becoming habituated to human foods.

So, back in 2019, Wilderness Watch and our allies filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Forest Service to stop the killing of grizzly bears at bait stations. While the recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling effectively ended that lawsuit, we immediately started exploring new legal options once the tragic news broke that a hunter had killed a threatened grizzly bear the very same day at a bait station on national forest land.

Even more devastating, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, “Two days prior to the incident, the hunter recorded video of the bear at the bait site and sent it to Fish and Game for review. The hunter expressed concern that the bear was a grizzly and not a black bear. Unfortunately, Fish and Game staff misidentified the young bear as a black bear because it lacked some common features of a grizzly, and shared that misidentification with the hunter.” Public records further reveal Idaho Fish and Game staff telling the hunter that “we do not need griz in the Joe.”

The next day, the hunter went out and shot the grizzly bear at the bait station.

As Dana Johnson, Wilderness Watch’s attorney and policy director, told the media, “The killing of a threatened grizzly bear at a bait station near St. Maries is tragic on so many levels. The grizzlies who set out in search of new territory are beacons of hope—they are the bears who will reestablish home ranges in places like the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and help reconnect and recover otherwise isolated and struggling grizzly bear communities. But we keep baiting and killing them. Incidents like this are tragic because they are so utterly preventable. It has to stop, and we’re not going away until it does.”

On July 15, Wilderness Watch, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, and Friends of the Clearwater—represented by the Western Environmental Law Center—sent a notice of intent to sue the State of Idaho for violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) over state hunting authorizations that put grizzly bears at risk.

We submitted the notice of intent to sue—a requirement of the ESA—to make sure no more threatened grizzly bears are killed at bait stations in Idaho and so grizzlies can find a safer path to reinhabiting their homelands in the Wildernesses of central Idaho. The State of Idaho has until September 13 to remedy the situation before we are able to officially file our lawsuit.

While there can be no justice for the grizzly bear killed by a ‘hunter’ over a bait pile on June 10, or any of the other grizzly bears killed over bait in recent years, Wilderness Watch will not stop exploring and exhausting all means to bring this unethical and senseless slaughter to an end.