CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Conservation groups are asking state agencies in Wyoming and Idaho to require hunters to carry bear spray in grizzly bear habitat.

Between 2015 and 2017, 146 grizzlies were killed in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The vast majority were encounters with hunters. Kristin Combs, executive director at Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, said while grizzly populations have been slowly expanding over the past 20 years, bears still are struggling to expand their range and connect with populations in the Mountain West.

"However, if we keep having these high numbers of mortalities year after year after year, we are not going to see recovery, we're not going to see that genetic connectivity between populations,” Combs said.

Encounters with grizzlies are rare, but Combs said more conflicts happen during hunting season, in part because bears are drawn to gut piles left by hunters after field-stripping game. Skeptics of the proposal say hunters are not about to drop their guns and reach for spray if they encounter a grizzly in the wild.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and studies published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, bear spray has been 98 percent effective at preventing human injuries during bear encounters. Firearms are only 50 percent effective.

Combs said the proposal is similar to requiring seat belts in cars or a life jacket when rafting.

"People tend to be kind of bad shots when bears are charging them, in a high-adrenaline situation,” she said. “If they have that bear spray on their person, that at least gives them a chance to have some sort of secondary method of protection for themselves and for the bears."

Combs noted Yellowstone and Glacier national parks already require staff to carry bear spray when working in the field. And Wyoming OSHA encourages guides and other workers in grizzly territory to carry and be trained in the use of bear spray as a matter of workplace safety.

The Wyoming Fish and Game Department has 60 days to respond to the petition submitted by conservation groups.


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MADISON, Wis. - The Department of Natural Resources wants Wisconsinites to weigh in on its efforts to address chronic wasting disease.

The always-fatal disease that affects the brains of some deer, elk and moose appeared in Wisconsin for the first time nearly 20 years ago. Since then, said Tom Hauge, who chairs the wildlife working group for the environmental advocacy group Wisconsin's Green Fire, cases of CWD have increased from about 200 in 2002 to an all-time high of nearly 1,600 last year.

"What we have seen is a steady increase in the distribution of the disease in the state," he said, "as well as the number of deer who are positive for chronic wasting disease."

The DNR will host a virtual public meeting at 9 a.m. Friday as an opportunity to offer feedback on the state's efforts to address CWD. A link to register for the session is on the DNR's website.

Wisconsin wrapped up its nine-day gun deer-hunting season last week. Part of the DNR's monitoring effort for CWD is urging hunters to submit samples to the department before consuming venison. Public health officials have recommended against eating deer meat that has tested positive for CWD.

Amanda Kamps, a DNR wildlife health conservation specialist, said the number of CWD infections may change as those tests roll in.

"We're still collecting all the samples and getting them entered into our database, getting them sent in for testing," she said. "We're still looking at getting a lot of test results in from the nine-day gun deer season."

So far this year, the DNR has diagnosed nearly 500 cases of chronic wasting disease in wild deer.

HELENA, Mont. -- To honor the Biden administration's steps toward greater ties with tribal nations, conservation groups are calling on it to list the gray wolf as an endangered species again.

More than 60 groups want the federal government to manage the species alongside tribal nations.

The gray wolf was delisted during the Trump administration.

Rain, author of "The Wolf Treaty" and director of the film "Family," which explores the ancient connection between human beings and wolves, said the delisting under President Donald Trump was illegal because the administration did not consult tribal nations.

"People need to understand that government-to-government consultation from federal agencies to tribes is not optional. It is mandated. It is the law," Rain asserted.

Rain is concerned President Joe Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Martha Williams -- who served as head of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks until 2020 -- has not recognized the requirement as fact. The Trump administration argued protections were no longer needed because gray wolves have successfully recovered.

Last week, the Biden administration held the White House Tribal Nations Summit for the first time since 2016. At the meeting, Biden released a memorandum of understanding on Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Federal Decision-Making.

Rain pointed out the administration can look to "The Wolf Treaty" as an embodiment of this knowledge. It has been signed by more than 700 tribal and first nations in both the U.S. and Canada.

"'The Wolf Treaty' has been described as a blueprint for 21st-century wolf management, and 'The Wolf Treaty' itself is heavily based upon indigenous traditional ecological knowledge," Rain added.

In Montana, new wolf-hunting regulations could reduce the wolf population by 85%. There are about 1,200 gray wolves in Montana, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

GOLETA, Calif. - The western monarch butterfly appears to be pulling back from the edge of extinction - with more than 100,000 counted so far in the 25th annual Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count.

This week, more than 100 butterfly enthusiasts are creeping around groves early each morning, counting the iconic orange-and-black western monarch, and they're finding large clusters from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz.

Emma Pelton, a Xerces Society conservation biologist, said it's unclear if the rebound is because of natural variability or something else.

"They move and migrate over such large areas that it's hard to know exactly what weather conditions or environmental factors affected things in any one spot," she said, "but we think this is a good example of resiliency."

People who spot a large cluster of monarchs are encouraged to report it on the app iNaturalist, so scientists can go check it out. Gardeners also can help the species by reducing pesticide use and by planting the butterflies' favorite flowering bushes, such as native narrow-leaf milkweed and other flowers that bloom year-round.

While it's good news that the numbers are up, Pelton cautioned that they still are dangerously low - representing more than a 90% drop from the number of monarchs that overwintered in California in the 1980s.

"We would really like to see 500,000 butterflies," she said. "We'd like to see a million butterflies, which is more of the historic size that we saw in the '90s, not that long ago."

The Biden administration's new infrastructure bill, passed last week, dedicates $10 million over five years for projects to benefit monarchs by planting native flowers, adopting pollinator-friendly land-management practices, and removing non-native vegetation.