A Win for Lynx and Grizzly Bears in Montana

Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) are medium-sized wildcats with a thick coat and broad, furry paws that allow them to stay on top of the snowpack. Lynx are an old-growth forest-dependent species, whose numbers have fallen due to the loss of old-growth forests from logging, the effects of climate change, and trapping. On March 24, 2000, the contiguous United States population of the Canada lynx was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and thus protected from trapping.

In 2013, because lynx were being killed in traps set for other animals in violation of the Endangered Species Act, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Wild Swan, and WildEarth Guardians, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, filed a lawsuit in federal district court.

In 2015, we signed a formal settlement agreement with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to restrict the types of trapping allowed in lynx habitat. The settlement agreement established a new Lynx Protection Zone covering occupied lynx habitat in Northwest Montana and the Greater Yellowstone area where special trapping regulations were designed to protect lynx, and indirectly, grizzlies. The agreement also put into place a three-year moratorium on wolverine trapping


https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/11/01/a-win-for-lynx-and-grizzly-bears-in-montana/