Decision to relist wolves frustrates officials, livestock growers

By CAROL RYAN DUMAS

Capital Press

A federal judge's ruling last week that the delisting of gray wolves in Idaho and Montana violated the Endangered Species Act has pulled the rug out from under state agencies, livestock growers and hunters.

Those entities contend they have worked long and diligently toward state management of wolves and delisting when population targets were met.

"Those targets were met several years ago," Idaho Cattle Association said in a prepared statement. "When the delisting rule was finally published, our industry felt that we were, in some small way, rewarded for our continued patience and cooperation."

The Department of the Interior delisted wolves in Idaho and Montana in April 2009. The wolves stayed listed in Wyoming, where state management was found lacking in protection.

The ruling also gave state agencies in parts of Oregon and Washington supervision of wolf management, even though the predators were protected by state endangered species laws in part of the two states and federal protections in areas farther away from the Idaho border.

Defenders of Wildlife, the Yellowstone Coalition and other wildlife advocates sued the federal government, challenging the removal of the wolf from the federal Endangered Species Act.

On Aug. 5, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, Missoula, Mont., ruled the northern Rockies gray wolf population "must be listed or delisted as a distinct population and protected accordingly."

The ruling shut down planned wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana this fall.

Jim Unsworth, director of Idaho Fish and Game, said in a news conference on Aug. 6 about 6,000 tags were sold in Idaho since the start of the year. The state will offer refunds to hunters that bought tags but haven't used them this year.

The department's concerns are with increased livestock and elk depredation and the disenfranchisement of sportsmen, who felt they were part of the state's wolf management, he said.

Deputy Director Virgil Moore also voiced concern over the precedent the ruling could set for other delisted species the state manages.

Unsworth said the agency will look into other legal options that would allow the hunt to take place. It will also continue with its non-hunting season wolf management.

In the upper panhandle of Idaho, north of Interstate 90, wolves have the full protections offered by the Endangered Species Act. South of I-90, state officials can use there management plan to preserve big game herds or protect private property. Individuals, like ranchers, can only kill a wolf it is in the act of attacking livestock or a stock-working dog.

"We are frustrated that Judge Molloy capitulated on the environmentalists' procedural arguments even as he acknowledged that the delisting was 'pragmatic' and 'practical,'" Idaho Cattle Association stated.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter also said he was frustrated and disappointed in the ruling and would exhaust all options to reverse the decision.

"Idaho has done everything asked of us by the federal government in order to delist wolves in our state and restore state management. The state ... proved to be an effective and responsible steward of the species under a plan praised by this very court," he said in a prepared statement. "This judge has inexplicably dismissed a practical, common-sense solution."

The federal government and environmentalists simply cannot live up to their word and allow state management, Otter said.

The environmentalists' lawsuit exhibits their true intentions, which is to control land use rather than cooperating in a common-sense resolution, Idaho Cattle Association said.

Suzanne Stone, northern Rockies representative with the Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife, said her organization "has a long record of being responsive to the livestock community's concerns and we plan to continue that and to expand our ongoing proactive conservation work to minimize conflict between wolves and livestock owners."

Gray wolves were listed as endangered in 1974, but a reintroduction program in the mid-1990s placed 31 wolves in Yellowstone National Park and 35 wolves in central Idaho to add to the six wolf packs that were known to be in northwestern Montana.

There are now more than 1,700 in the Northern Rockies, which includes all of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, along with portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah.

At the end of 2009, there were at least 843 wolves in Idaho, 524 in Montana and 320 in Wyoming, with more in parts of Oregon and Washington state. About 14 wolves are now known to be in northeastern Oregon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.