If States own wildlife management, under what legal authority does the ESA operate?

[eye_zick]

Possibly, but when Trump tried to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities and states when they refused to enforce federal immigration laws, judges ruled that he couldn't withhold that funding. So that shouldn't stop the states from ignoring the ESA, and they would still get their funding......as already declared now as precedent by the courts.

FWIW - "According to the court, managing wildlife on federal land was not a power reserved to the States under the Tenth Amendment. Rather, the Federal Government took that power under the auspices of the Constitution's Property Clause. Accordingly, the court held that the State of Wyoming "does not have the sovereign power to manage wildlife on Federal lands." Wyoming, 61 F.Supp.2d at 1216-17.

 

[william schmaltz]

Court upholds hunting and bear baiting restrictions for Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

The so-called “Kenai Rule” placed restrictions on hunting and trapping in the 2-million-acre refuge.

www.alaskapublic.org

Or sometimes you just have a president make up their own politically-driven rules for game management.

 

[eye_zick]

Yet we have this thing called the endangered species act. Try as they may, and despite all the evidence proving they have made a full recovery, WY, MT and ID can’t have a grizzly season yet.

Specific answer on grizzly bears not being delisted -

The legal framework that applied to grizzly bear listing under the ESA in 1975 no longer exists.

The The 1993 Recovery Plan was the last time the feds published a plan for grizzly bear populations and delisting.

Wyoming and Montana have attempted legal proceedings to delist the grizzly. That 1993 plans requirements to meet to delist suck, are vague and overly broad making it impossible for states to navigate due to the various Courts' interpretation of those delisting criteria.

To make matters worse, the USFWS announced in 2017 the delisting of grizzly's in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (ID, WY, MT) only to have a federal judge relist the specie in 2018. This is where the entangled web of delisting the of grizzly gets impassible by states to delist the grizz.