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.

State delisting petitions denied. Agency also proposes revising regulations to increase management flexibility.

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

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

The Fish and Wildlife Service listed the grizzly bear population in all of the lower 48 states as threatened in 1975.

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

The Yellowstone area grizzly will not be delisted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Biden administration, as the service instead announced an alternate proposal Wednesday.

The decision will likely anger the officials of several northern states, which have demanded the right to take over bear management from U.S. Fish