State-sponsored Killing of Wolves Goes to Court

State-sponsored Killing of Wolves Goes to Court

Feb, 2008  - In a bid to bar states from 
aerial gunning and other state-sponsored killing of wolves, seven 
conservation groups today filed a lawsuit in federal district court in 
Missoula to stop the implementation of a new Bush administration rule that 
lowers the bar for wolf killing when a state determines that wolves are 
impacting elk or deer. 
The rule would allow the states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana to kill 
wolves while they are still protected under the Endangered Species Act. 
The rule applies to wolves in central Idaho and the Greater Yellowstone 
area - descendents of the roughly 60 wolves that were reintroduced to 
those regions in 1995 and 1996. 
The Bush administration says the rule change is necessary because the 
previous standard required states to show that wolves are the primary 
cause of a decline in wild ungulate numbers. That threshold has proven 
impossible to meet because nearly all elk herds in Idaho, Wyoming, and 
Montana are above population objectives, and wolves have never been 
determined to have been the primary cause of a population decline. 
"The federal government is overlooking the benefits wolves are bringing to 
the states of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana," said Earthjustice attorney Doug 
Honnold, who is representing the plaintiff groups. 
"The University of Montana found that visitors coming to Yellowstone 
National Park to see wolves brought $35 million annually to the region's 
economy, which yields more than $70 million in added benefit to 
communities in the Northern Rockies," Honnold argued. "Elk populations are 
now healthier, streams run cold and clear again, and other wildlife 
populations are back in balance." 
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued two rules concerning gray 
wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. One would remove the wolves from 
protection under the Endangered Species Act, a process called delisting. 
The second rule would allow states in the Northern Rockies to kill wolves 
whenever wolves had impacts on wild ungulate populations. 
The second rule remains in effect only until the administration removes 
wolves from the list of endangered species, an action that is expected to 
come next month. 
Still, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted the rule in response to 
the state of Wyoming, which insisted that states have the right to kill 
wolves affecting elk herds in any way even if a federal court overturns 
wolf delisting in the Northern Rockies. 
"Deer and elk populations are thriving in this region. There's absolutely 
no reason to begin slaughtering wolves, other than to please a handful of 
special interests," said Sierra Club representative Melanie Stein. 
Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity said "the rule 
harkens back to a period in which wolves' natural role of maintaining the 
balance of nature is seen as a problem." 
Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter has said that Idaho has a population of 
over 1,200 wolves, when the federal government has said repeatedly over 
the past decade that 300 wolves in the region would be a recovered, viable 
population. 
"There is no reason to delay delisting," the governor said in March 2007. 
"The government should declare victory and move on." 

"Idahoans are proud stewards of the land and species of our state. Idaho 
is going to manage wolves as we do black bears and mountain lions," said 
the governor. "With estimated black bear and cougar populations of 20,000 
and 3,000 respectively, Idaho has a proven record of responsible large 
carnivore management. We will continue this great record with wolves." 
"The key is flexibility to control problem wolves," he said. "In areas 
where wolves are not destroying livestock or having a dramatic impact on 
our ungulate herds, wolves will be managed in concert with all species." 
"In areas where we’ve documented consistent patterns of chronic livestock 
depredation, like the Copper Basin, and where wolves are having an 
unacceptable impact on elk herds, the state will use sportsmen and other 
tools to manage wolves and protect private property," said Governor Otter. 

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal has said, "The ultimate question, 
though, is whether or not Wyoming will be given the flexibility to manage 
wolves that are causing an unacceptable impact on our elk and moose 
populations." 
Conservationists are not reassured by these statements. 
"In this rule, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is either downplaying 
the threats to wolves, or it has forgotten all the trigger-happy 
statements made by Wyoming and Idaho officials who want to kill as many 
wolves as possible, as soon as possible," says Louisa Willcox of the 
Natural Resources Defense Council. 
"This rule is nothing less than a declaration of war on wolves in Idaho, 
Wyoming, and Montana," said John Grandy, Ph.D., senior vice president of 
The Humane Society of the United States. "After decades of progress, the 
service is abandoning all that we have achieved for wolf conservation and 
returning to the short-sighted persecution and extermination policies of 
the past." 
Grey wolves were virtually eliminated from the Western United States by 
the 1930s. Fear of wolves by early American settlers combined with 
livestock losses began a national campaign for mass extermination. 
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Predatory Animal and Rodent Control 
Service spent millions of dollars hiring and supplying trappers. 
Subsidized bounty programs that started in the late 1800s and to 1965, 
offered $20 to $50 per wolf. 
Public attitudes changed and conservationists altered the view of the 
federal government, and wolves received legal protection with the passage 
of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. 
Canadian wolves moved south to Montana in the early 1980s, and in 1995 and 
1996, 66 wolves from Canada were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park 
and central Idaho. The Fish and Wildlife Service began recovery efforts in 
Idaho with the release of 15 wolves in 1995, and 20 more in 1996. 

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