Several environmental activist groups on Monday notified state officials and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game that they intend to file a lawsuit over the agency’s allowance of bear baiting, which the groups said put federally protected grizzly bears at risk and violate the Endangered Species Act.
The notice came a month after a hunter in North Idaho mistakenly shot and killed a grizzly bear at a legal bait site. In a news release last month, Fish and Game officials said the hunter had sent video to the agency to determine whether the bear was a black bear or a grizzly. Fish and Game said staff “misidentified the young bear as a black bear because it lacked some common features of a grizzly.”
The groups — Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, Wilderness Watch and Friends of the Clearwater — cited the incident in their intent to sue. In the document, the groups asked Fish and Game to stop allowing bear baiting in grizzly habitat. They said defendants in the suit, to be filed in 60 days, will include Gov. Brad Little, Fish and Game Director Jim Fredericks and members of the Fish and Game Commission.
Fish and Game did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Idaho Fish and Game allows the use of bait — attractants like synthetic scents, meat, baked goods and more — to hunt black bears in dozens of its 99 game management units. It notes in its big game rules that grizzlies may be present in more than a dozen of those units.
