A dismayed Chris Servheen is raising the alarm about what’s become of federal scientists who have kept watch over the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s grizzly bear population for the last 55 years.
The group of research biologists and technicians, known as the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, are being hamstrung at best and arguably dismantled, he told WyoFile. For decades, until his retirement in 2016, Sevheen worked closely with the study team while coordinating grizzly bear recovery for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“It’s functionally destroying the organization,” Servheen said Thursday. “The study team has been in place since 1970 — over 50 years of work and experience and knowledge. It’s going to just disappear and die.”
Servheen’s perplexed about what the Trump administration has to gain.
“How could anybody be so negligent and vile that they’re trying to destroy something that has brought grizzly bears back from the edge of extinction?” he said. “Why would you do that? It’s just so destructive.”
Led by Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency’s dismantling started with a hiring freeze. Longtime supervisory wildlife biologist Mark Haroldson retired, and his position is not being filled, according to Servheen. Then, the team’s longtime leader, Frank van Manen, announced an earlier-than-desired retirement.
“He didn’t want to leave,” Servheen said of van Manen, who declined to comment.
According to Servheen, van Manen’s departure was related to the federal government’s ongoing upheaval.
“They’re putting fear into people,” Servheen said. “That’s basically evil, to do that to hard-working people who have been civil servants for decades.”
The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team is part of the U.S. Geological Survey, and its website lists four other employees. Three are technicians, which are often seasonal, entry-level employees. The remaining staff biologist has been in the job about three years.
“They’re putting fear into people. That’s basically evil, to do that to hard-working people who have been civil servants for decades.”
Chris servheen
If any of the study team’s employees opt to stick it out amid a second wave of buyouts, they’re likely to be out of an office space come fall. The Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, described by its director as “one of the nation’s key laboratories to study the ecosystems and species of the Northern Rockies,” is one of hundreds of federal facilities being shuttered by DOGE.
Although located in Bozeman, many of the federal facility’s researchers do work in Wyoming.
“They do all kinds of other stuff: brucellosis and chronic wasting disease and aquatic species,” Servheen said. “It’s a huge science center.”
The planned closure has elicited protests. According to Yellowstonian.org, 42 retired or active biologists petitioned Montana’s congressional delegation to use their influence to “protect [the science center] and its employees from these unwarranted attacks by DOGE.”
Federal offices located in Wyoming have not escaped the closures. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s tribal-focused Lander conservation office and a USGS Cheyenne water science station are among those that have been marked for the chopping block.
WyoFile could not officially confirm impacts to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. Federal agencies under the Trump administration have declined or not responded to WyoFile’s requests for more information on downsizing and office closures. An inquiry to a USGS public affairs officer on Thursday yielded no information about the matter.
The Center for Biological Diversity has been pressing the federal agency for details as well. On Thursday, the environmental advocacy organization publicized a Freedom of Information Act request to gain more insight into the future of the federal grizzly team.
Both recently departed veteran study team members — van Manen and Haroldson — are staying engaged in grizzly science in pro-bono emeritus roles, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Nevertheless, Servheen worries that the hit to the science team could trickle down to the grizzly population — estimated at 1,000 or so bears in the Greater Yellowstone — that it’s charged with studying.
Over the decades, federal researchers have played a pivotal role in improving understanding of the region’s bruins, including completing studies that have helped make the case that grizzly bears are fully recovered and no longer require Endangered Species Act protection. They’ve also amassed mortality and other demographic datasets and compiled an annual report.
“The foundation of Yellowstone grizzly bear recovery has been built on science,” Servheen said. “Removing that science eliminates our ability to maintain Yellowstone grizzly bears.”
Somehow, I think the bears will survive. It’s really kinda comical to see the reactions of some in these comments. WG&F have been doing a fine job, and grizzly bears will not become extinct in our lifetime. Seems like some people begin moaning and groaning as soon as they learn about something that they feel will somehow affect their lives.
On another note, I remember being laid off several times during my life. I was never offered any severance. It is what it is. Government needs to shrink. Our national deficit needs to go away. Only one single administration has cared before Trump, and that was Clinton, who actually took care of that situation. After that, we sunk right back into it. Have you ever thought how bad it would be if the economy collapses? Remember what happened to Russia? Anyone? Hello!!
Ya gotta start somewhere, no matter how bad it hurts. Government is not supposed to be the largest employer.
It is time to de-list the bear and declare victory. It has been an amazing recovery and the states can manage it now. The Fed researchers have made a life career out of milking this effort. The bear should have been de-listed years ago.
It is not the end of Grizzles, just an adjustment to monitor them now that the population is healthy. Taxpayers do not need to pay for camping experiences and an overflow of bear watchers , following the science and statistics helps.
I don’t see this as harmful in any way to bears in Wyoming. 99+% of Grizzly management in Wyoming is done by the Game and Fish already. In my county, bears are hazed, trapped, relocated and at times euthanized. All done by Game and Fish Department biologists. And under WGF expert management, Grizzly numbers continue to increase and Grizzly range continues to expand. How is a 50 year history of exemplary WGF management not a success story? If the Feds really want to help bears, a block grant to the Game and Fish to help fund management would be an excellent idea.
I agree 100% with Ernie Wampler. get rid of the feds let the state run it.
So Wyoming politicos will keep grizzlies safe? I doubt it. Check out Sen. Lummis who wants to remove protections from wolves & what is going on in nearby states. The only reason we still have wolves (and grizzlies) is the Endangered Species Act. Given the power of ranchers and trophy hunters, Federal protections will need to exist in PERPETUITY if they are to survive.
Upload the grizzly science data onto external servers. The CDC and other health organizations are doing this to protect crucial medical research in case the US ever escapes its orange fever dream. We won’t have to restart everything from a baseline of zero. Canada, Mexico and science libraries can keep us at a warm start for most of the species the alt-right will try to eradicate. Courageous Europeans hid people, priceless art and literature from the fascist Nazis during WWII, this is no different. We just need a few residents with access, integrity and ethics to step up. We can safely guard 50+ years of grizzly research on a few external HDs. Much easier than protecting a Jewish family or Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges, but the reason, thought and intent are the same. Move quietly, protect the vulnerable in your communities, and store the data.
Mike- your writing and work in general is excellent. I live in Virginia and read Wyofile every day because my son and DIL live in Lander. Visiting soon! Please keep publishing stories like this. We need a rebellion against this evil idiocy.
In 1968 the Wyoming Game and Fish, who had sole authority over the management of grizzly bears, ended all hunting of grizzly bears. They then embarked on a plan to rebuild the bear population, but in 1974 the bears were listed as threatened by the federal government, and so ended state control of the bears. Enter the Interagency Study Team. Now for over 50 years there has been no hunting of the bears in Wyoming and the population increases and increases and the Interagency Study Team studies and studies, at great cost I may add. Did all that studying actually contribute to the increases in a grizzly population that was no longer being hunted? It is long passed time to turn the bear management back to the state and disband the federal study team, but some think that they should exist in perpetuity. To go so far to say that it is evil and vile to end a bureaucracy that may no longer be needed is pretty unprofessional.
Ernie
Well said.
Trusting the state is how the bears almost became extinct in the first place. You cannot surge trust, and when it comes to the alt-right, there is zero trust. The effort here is not to end a bureaucracy, it’s to remove guardrails preventing the eradication of bears (or anything) competing with WY livestock. This is a ham-fisted move to allow the whole sale killing of bears until zero remain in the WY ecosystems. Fair enough, WY voted in mass to let welfare ranchers, crypto grifters and toilet creepers run the state, as a reflection of our values. In 10-20 years, when enough damage has been done and whoever remains wakes up from the orange nightmare, the smart kids can open the science files and work re-introduction programs with the Canadians or bears from Alaska. Ditto for every other species the backrow decimates. Mother Nature gets a vote and clearly doesn’t support team orange. Looking out the window recently, seems most of the world now clearly doesn’t support team orange, either.
Amen, you nailed it. At some point research jobs overcome actual need.