An environmental group has put a railway company on notice of an impending lawsuit, charging the railway company with not doing enough to protect grizzly bears from being hit and killed by the trains.

Wildlife Guardians, supported by the Western Environmental Law Center, notified BNSF Railway Company that it would be filing a lawsuit accusing the company of negligently killing grizzly bears, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act,

According to news reports, five grizzlies were killed in October by railway activities in Montana. Allegedly a train struck a cow, which attracted five bears to the tracks; two bears died in train collisions and three were killed by cars nearby.

The 67-mile stretch of railway between West Glacier and Browning is where trains reportedly killed 29 grizzlies between 1980 and 2002, said Pete Frost, attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. Slowing the trains down, ensuring carrion are promptly cleared from tracks, and perhaps scheduling trains to run during the day and not at feeding time might reduce trains killing grizzlies.

When a company's activities kill threatened species like the grizzly bear, it is legally required to propose solutions in a habitat conservation plan that then can lead to an incidental take permit, the groups said.

BNSF officials have said that crews work to remove carrion and spilled grain, which attracts bears, from the tracks.

—Source: Nationalparkstraveler.org