Gray wolves have been taken off of the endangered species list for the second time in less than a year, prompting both joy and controversy across Montana.
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials are applauding the federal government's decision.
"The numbers speak for themselves" said FWP's John Fraley. "The number of breeding pairs and packs is about four times the recovery level across the recovery area, so the number speaks for themselves. Wolves have recovered in the area we are talking about here."
But conservationists disagree with that sentiment, saying that the numbers that the government are using to make the decision are flawed, and that wolves are in fact still endangered.
"We've been working with a number of scientists and geneticists on the wolf issue, and there are over 200 scientists that sent a letter to (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Services saying that the recovery goals are too low" commented Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Wildlife Advocate Louisa Wilcox. "What Montana is touting as a success really represents too small a recovery target to be safe in the long term and healthy in the long term."
Representing the views of many citizens and ranchers that have been terrorized by the species, the president of Montanans for Multiple Use Fred Hodgeboom says that wolves should have been delisted a long time ago.
"For crying out loud, our livestock producers, and even people that aren't farmers- we lose a lot of pet to these wolves and it's totally unnecessary. We need to control those wolves when they get around human habitation and livestock production. That is what has to happen."
The delisting decision means that Montana officials will be managing their wolf population and it will be possible to hunt the animal. But, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Willcox says the battle is far from over.
"This agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bush (administration) has actually come up with a strategy that seems to be designed to anger everyone. This is going to be very vulnerable to a legal challenge and we are certainly going to be one of the parties to a legal challenge."
The wolves came off the endangered species list in March of 2008, but a Montana federal judge reversed that ruling four months later. Lawsuits aside, this latest decision will become official on February 27th.
(from January 14, 2009)
The Bush administration has announced plans to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountains regions from the federal endangered species list.
Wolves in Wyoming will remain under federal jurisdiction because that state has not done enough to assure their survival, Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett said Wednesday.
Several groups have already spoken out against the decision.
One of those groups is the Sierra Club who, along with other conservation groups, announced in a press release Wednesday plans to challenge the wolf delisting decision in court.
"This is an attempt to circumvent the protection needed for wolves throughout this region," Sierra Club representative Melanie Stein said in the release. "Removing federal protections for wolves will leave them at the mercy of aggressive state plans that treat wolves as pests rather than a valuable wildlife resource. Releasing yet another flawed delisting rule is simply a last ditch attempt to remove protections for wolves before the Bush administration leaves office."
Another group, Big Wildlife, also criticized the decision.
"The Endangered Species Act is supposed to put imperiled species on the road to recovery. But today's action by the Bush Administration to strip federal protections for the gray wolf will put wolves right back on the express train to extinction," Brian Vincent, Communications Director for Big Wildlife, said in a press release.
The wildlife advocacy group said a record number of 245 wolves was killed last year by government agencies and ranchers in the Northern Rockies. Last November, Big Wildlife condemned the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department and the federal agency, Wildlife Services, for killing all 27 wolves, including pups, of the Hog Heaven pack near Kalispell.
A third group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, also issued a release, stating that the "piecemeal exclusion of wolves in the state of Wyoming in this new action undermines efforts to address the needs of wolves and people in the region. "
"This move is not viable legally, politically, or biologically," said Andrew Wetzler, Director of NRDC's Endangered Species Project. "They have actually come up with a strategy that will anger everyone from ranchers and state officials to conservationists. This simply gets in the way of finding a real solution."
The government has tried previously to remove wolves in both regions from the endangered list and return management authority to the states. But the efforts have been overruled by courts.
Last September, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., sided with animal-rights groups that accused the government of misapplying the law in when it lifted protections for about 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2007.
Jenny Harbine, an attorney with Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, which represented the groups that filed the previous lawsuit that opposed removing gray wolves from the endangered species list, said another lawsuit is in the works.
As soon as the rule is published, the groups plan to file another lawsuit, Harbine said.
