The Biden administration is keeping protections in place for more than 2,000 grizzly bears in western states despite requests to lift the safeguards.

Western lawmakers growled, environmentalists applauded, and the federal agency braced for more wrangling of the kind that has accompanied the iconic mammal since it was listed as threatened under the ESA in 1975.

Federal officials also said they will reclassify the grizzly’s status so that ranchers would be able to shoot bears that are killing livestock.

Grizzlies in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming will continue to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied Montana and Wyoming’s petition to delist grizzly bears in the Greater Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems

Environmentalists are applauding the much-anticipated decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but there is a catch.