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Abstract
Reformers of the US Endangered Species Act often present its protections as a hindrance to economic prosperity in rural counties by placing the welfare of animals above that of people. This position suggests that lost livestock grazing, restrictive land and water use regulations, and compromised property rights preclude human well-being. This may be particularly acute in western states where large predator conservation requires many acres of pristine habitat embedded in a mosaic of public and private lands. This paper examines the proposition by analyzing the result of conservation of an apex predator-the Yellowstone grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis)-and its impact on human economic well-being in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The conclusion is that, in this case, such conservation policy did not foreclose human prosperity. Rather, conservation is associated with gains in economic welfare of residents.
Introduction
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced in June 2017 that grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park would no longer be listed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (Balint et al. 2011; USFWS 2017); by September 2018, a US federal district judge restored ESA protections for the bears. This was not the first time the bear had been a candidate for delisting only to have it reversed in federal court. During the initial effort to delist the bears in 2007, the decision was reversed by the courts in 2009. That decision was appealed in 2010 and upheld in 2011 (Nokes 2019). In 2013 USFWS once again recommended grizzly bears be removed from the threatened species list and the decision was implemented in 2017, leading to the 2018 decision (USNPS 2018). Since its initial ESA listing in 1975, the population of bears has increased toward recovery levels and most agree that this population will be delisted soon and management of the bear will fall to the wildlife agencies of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. In the interim, the legal back and forth underscores the fundamental success of four decades of grizzly bear protection and management.
In this paper the case study of restoration of the Yellowstone grizzly bear is used to examine the contention that apex predator conservation is a threat to regional prosperity by presenting the following narrative:
1. The listing and...