By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
Jim Urquhart / Reuters
A grizzly bear and her cub are seen in the Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., on June 24.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service?on Tuesday lost a court battle in its bid to?lift federal protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area.
The service had been arguing that a strong rebound by the local?grizzly population, now estimated at around 600, warranted lifting the protections. But?a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision, ruling that?the service?hadn't properly weighed the impact of a declining food source: the whitepark pine.
The 9th Circuit Court judges wrote that a study used by the service?"to demonstrate long-term grizzly population growth included data only until 2002, before the 'epidemic of mountain pine beetles' began to kill the region's whitebark pines."?
The policy amounts to a "full-speed ahead, damn-the-torpedoes approach" to taking the bears off the Endangered Species Act, the judges ruled.
The service had been challenged in court?by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Some will paint this as a sign that the Endangered Species Act doesn?t work," Louisa Willcox, a wildlife advocate with the council, said in a statement. "Nothing could be further from the truth. The grizzlies? comeback is a clear success story; the bears simply would not exist in the Greater Yellowstone if not for the Act?s legal protections and the hard work of many to look after the species. But due to changing conditions, we will all need to redouble efforts to focus on conflict resolution efforts as the bears seek out new food sources in their range."
Those?siding with?the federal government in court included Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, the National Wildlife Federation and?Safari Club International, which had hoped?to start grizzly hunts. The wildlife federation supports removing the grizzlies, arguing that the population recovery goals had been met.
A Fish and Wildlife spokesman said the agency had not decided how to proceed. But the agency's grizzly bear coordinator, Chris Servheen, said an appeal was?unlikely.
Servheen said the agency would start working on a new proposal to lift protections based on research not available to the court.
"We can provide more information on the whitebark issue as they requested," he?said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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