Feds move to delist wolves

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

Claiming the critter has far exceeded its recovery goals, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it is removing the Northern Rocky Mountain population of the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List.

“The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal and continues to expand its size and range. States, tribes, conservation groups, federal agencies and citizens of both regions can be proud of their roles in this remarkable conservation success story,” Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett said.

There are currently more than 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims.

For some, that’s way too many. For others, it’s not nearly enough.

The move to delist the gray wolf will draw litigation from several environmental groups.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, decades before passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, exterminated wolves from the West,” Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said. “The Bush Administration, acting on behalf of the livestock industry, is attempting to thwart recovery and bring wolves back to the brink of extinction.”

Wrong, says Jake Cummins of the Montana Farm Bureau. Cummins said years ago, when wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995, he predicted that environmental groups would sue when it came time to de-list the population.

“Exactly what we predicted has occurred,” he said.

He noted the recovery goal was 300 wolves and 10 breeding pairs; now there are 1,500 wolves and environmental groups are suing.

“We think it’s about time” wolves were delisted, he said.

Cummins claimed that the environmental groups wouldn’t be happy “until there’s wolves from one end of the state to another ”

He claimed wolves represent a threat to the farming way of life.

“They’ll take your pets, your children, your livestock,” he said. While no wolf attacks on humans have occurred, he claimed it could happen.

“A little human looks like a lunchbox” to a wolf, he claimed.

But Robinson claimed the government was trying to whitewash the wolf recovery. He noted that 85 percent of the area that wolves inhabit actually has no wolves, and that delisting could reopen the doors to government hunting and trapping of wolves once again.

There are rules that would allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to exterminate wolf populations where they are determined to pose a threat to deer and elk populations.

Environmental groups are also challenging that rule in court.

Cummins said Farm Bureau didn’t oppose wolves outright, but it did want to see some “common sense” discussion.

Robinson claimed that delisting wolves now was “biologically flawed,” because the population is in three distinct areas that really don’t interact — the Yellowstone population, the Central Idaho population and the Northwest Montana population.

In between those areas, there are few, if any, wolves.

In Northwest Montana, the wolf population is estimated at roughly 150 to 200 animals. The Northwest Montana population was not introduced — it migrated here from Canada and established itself.

The environmental groups can’t sue immediately. By law, they have to file an intent to sue first, which gives the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 60 days to potentially change its actions, Robinson noted.