1993 2000 2002 2002 In the revised Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan, the USFWS defines three specific goals for recovery. The goals must be met for six consecutive years: * Population goal. * Distribution of females with young. * Human-caused mortality limits. The Conservation Strategy draft is complete. It includes the management approach and allows for biologically and socially suitable expansion of bears outside the conservation area. Wyoming Grizzly Bear Management Plan completed, outlining the plan for state management following delisting. The Conservation Strategy is approved. This will take effect once grizzlies are recovered. 2007 2006 2005 2003 The delisting rule is drafted and published. Bears are delisted March 22 and Wyoming assumes management authority for the first time since being listed. The Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan is revised with new standards for estimating populations and mortality limits. USFWS proposed to remove grizzly bears from the threatened list. All recovery criteria are met in the GYE grizzly bear population. The USFWS moves forward with a delisting rule. 2018 2019 2020 2020 Wyoming plans a conservative grizzly bear hunt. * A United States District Judge in Montana ruled in favor of the Crow Indian Tribe, other tribes and environmental groups halting the hunt. The judge ruled bears must be relisted based on three considerations: * Impact on ecosystems * Connectivity * Methods of population estimates The USFWS relisting is appealed. The Federal Department of Interior, the states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and advocacy organizations file to the Federal Court of Appeals to delist the grizzly bear. A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the Montana District Court's opinion that the bears living in the GYE will remain listed as threatened, noting long-term genetic effects on other grizzly bear populations across the country and the need to study the population further. USFWS initiates a five-year status review of grizzly bears in the conterminous United States under the Endangered Species Act. A 5-year status review is based on the a scientific and commercial data available at the time; the last review of the species was in 2011. A sow grizzly bear leads her two cubs along a ridgeline in Grand Teton National Park. (Photo by Mark Gocke/WGFD) Wyoming Wildlife | 25