Post by FWS on Sept 17, 2008 12:05:54 GMT -6
Feds back down on delisting wolves
The predators will continue to be protected as the government tries to rewrite a plan to remove them from the endangered species list.
BY ROCKY BARKER
Idaho Statesman
09/17/08
The federal government plans to withdraw a rule that removed wolves in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington from the endangered species list.
If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula agrees, a lawsuit filed by environmentalists will end, and federal biologists will get a chance to rewrite the plan to meet objections the judge made. Molloy's preliminary injunction July 17 temporarily relisted wolves and put a halt to plans in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to open hunting seasons on the animals.
Since that decision, the estimated 2,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies have been under federal management.
Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's top wolf manager, acknowledged the Bush administration had failed to explain why it was confident it could delist wolves without endangering the species again. Before the agency can issue a new rule, it must address Molloy's concerns, Bangs said.
"There's going to be a thorough, fine-toothed comb going through it to decide what we can do better," Bangs said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and 11 other wolf advocacy groups demonstrated they would likely win the case on the merits of their arguments, Molloy said in his July opinion.
Molloy made that decision based on the wolf advocates' claim that wolves in Yellowstone National Park were not genetically mixing with other wolf populations, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said was necessary. If the wolves don't interbreed throughout the region, that could leave isolated and genetically threatened enclaves, not a sustainable population.
Malloy also criticized Wyoming's plan, which left 90 percent of the state open for wolf killing year-round.
But the judge said the Montana and Idaho wolf plans were good enough to protect wolves at least as well as the federal rules in place when the wolves were delisted. Idaho estimated it had a spring population of 1,063 and, before Molloy's ruling, had authorized a hunting season that would have allowed the killing of up to 428 wolves.
Bangs said shortly after the July decision that he was confident he could change the judge's mind on the genetics issue. But Wyoming's determination to let wolves be killed in much of the state was an issue that was harder to defend.
"Hopefully they'll go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that better protects wolves," said Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold, who had filed the lawsuit on behalf of environmentalists.
The predators will continue to be protected as the government tries to rewrite a plan to remove them from the endangered species list.
BY ROCKY BARKER
Idaho Statesman
09/17/08
The federal government plans to withdraw a rule that removed wolves in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington from the endangered species list.
If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula agrees, a lawsuit filed by environmentalists will end, and federal biologists will get a chance to rewrite the plan to meet objections the judge made. Molloy's preliminary injunction July 17 temporarily relisted wolves and put a halt to plans in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to open hunting seasons on the animals.
Since that decision, the estimated 2,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies have been under federal management.
Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's top wolf manager, acknowledged the Bush administration had failed to explain why it was confident it could delist wolves without endangering the species again. Before the agency can issue a new rule, it must address Molloy's concerns, Bangs said.
"There's going to be a thorough, fine-toothed comb going through it to decide what we can do better," Bangs said.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and 11 other wolf advocacy groups demonstrated they would likely win the case on the merits of their arguments, Molloy said in his July opinion.
Molloy made that decision based on the wolf advocates' claim that wolves in Yellowstone National Park were not genetically mixing with other wolf populations, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said was necessary. If the wolves don't interbreed throughout the region, that could leave isolated and genetically threatened enclaves, not a sustainable population.
Malloy also criticized Wyoming's plan, which left 90 percent of the state open for wolf killing year-round.
But the judge said the Montana and Idaho wolf plans were good enough to protect wolves at least as well as the federal rules in place when the wolves were delisted. Idaho estimated it had a spring population of 1,063 and, before Molloy's ruling, had authorized a hunting season that would have allowed the killing of up to 428 wolves.
Bangs said shortly after the July decision that he was confident he could change the judge's mind on the genetics issue. But Wyoming's determination to let wolves be killed in much of the state was an issue that was harder to defend.
"Hopefully they'll go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that better protects wolves," said Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold, who had filed the lawsuit on behalf of environmentalists.
