Montana Governor Greg Gianforte recently criticized President Joe Biden and the United States Fish and Wildlife Services for rejecting years-old petitions from the state to remove the grizzly bear from the list of endangered and threatened species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday reaffirmed the protected status of grizzly bears on the Endangered Species List, rejecting petitions from Montana and Wyoming officials to delist the species in specific recovery zones.

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