Wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho planned to let hunters with special permits kill up to 23 grizzlies in the first big-game seasons for the bears in three decades. On Aug. 30, Christensen temporarily suspended the states' Sept. 1 season just hours after he recessed a four-hour hearing on the federal government's case for turning the bears over to state management. The Endangered Species Act protects threatened species from hunting, but does allow government officials to kill bears for management reasons like livestock predation. Individuals may also kill grizzles in self-defense or protection of property.

Coincidentally, a grizzly bear killed a Wyoming hunting guide near Jackson Hole the day before a second phase of Wyoming’s grizzly hunt was to begin on Sept. 15. Both state and federal attorneys had claimed grizzly delisting and hunting seasons were necessary to reassure residents living around bears that they would be kept safe.

Advocates for continued Endangered Species Act protection countered the states were pandering to the wishes of trophy hunters who exaggerated the threat grizzlies posed to people and domestic livestock. They maintained the Fish and Wildlife Service unlawfully discounted the risk of people killing too many grizzlies for the species’ slow reproductive rate to recover.