Judge restores protection for N. Rockies wolves
By MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge in Montana has ordered that gray wolves in the northern Rockies be returned to the endangered species list.

The preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy is expected to derail plans by Montana, Wyoming and Idaho to allow public hunts for the predator.

Wolf populations in the three states were removed from the endangered list in March following a decade-long restoration effort. Environmentalists sued to overturn the decision.

The region has an estimated 2,000 wolves. The population has been soaring and increasingly preying on livestock. But environmentalists say the number of wolves would quickly plummet with the hunts the states have planned.

Background article from earlier this year,

U.S. District Court: Groups ask to shield wolves
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
5-30-2008

Conservationists who oppose the removal of wolves from under federal protection - and who call the delisting unlawful - sought an emergency injunction Thursday to stop the animals' killing.

Last month, a coalition of 11 environmental groups sued the U.S. Department of the Interior in an effort to keep gray wolves in the Northern Rockies region on the endangered species list.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director H. Dale Hall announced the delisting decision in February, and it took effect March 28, divesting the gray wolf of its Endangered Species Act protections.
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Without those protections, environmentalists say, the gray wolf population will never reach sustainable levels and is likely to enter a long-term decline.

At a hearing in Missoula on Thursday, the coalition's attorney, Doug L. Honnold of Earthjustice, tried to convince U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy to extend federal protections until the lawsuit is resolved.

About 17 lawyers representing as many state agencies and nonprofit policy groups defended the management plan, which requires states to maintain a minimum of 300 wolves. Agency officials say they are committed to maintaining at least 450 wolves and that the actual population likely will be about 1,000.

The region's wolf population is increasing by about 24 percent annually, according to wildlife officials.

But environmentalists say state officials and ranchers have already killed 77 wolves since the delisting, at a rate of more than one wolf per day, and that the states' wolf management scheme represents a return to many of the policies that resulted in wolves' eradication from the Western landscape.

“We hope Judge Molloy's decision will give the wolves a necessary reprieve while this issue gets sorted out,†said Louisa Wilcox, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Livingston office.

Although an estimated 1,500 gray wolves live in the northern Rockies, where they were nearly exterminated by the 1930s, environmentalists argue that Montana, Idaho and Wyoming - states that have taken over wolf management from the Fish and Wildlife Service - have not achieved the wolf recovery objectives outlined in the Endangered Species Act.

Wolf numbers will be further decimated by legalized hunting and loosened restrictions on when wolves can be killed to protect game herds, Wilcox said.

The three states have each committed to maintain between 100 and 150 wolves, and plan to open wolf-hunting seasons in the fall. Montana has regulated wolves as a big-game species, but some wolves in Wyoming and Idaho are classified as predatory and can be killed year-round.

“There are aspects of these state management plans that say anyone, anywhere can kill a wolf, even if they are not threatening livestock,†Wilcox said. “We could then witness a slaughter of over a thousand wolves, executed as we have seen in recent weeks, on the backs of snowmobiles, as well as by trappers and aerial gunners.â€

Wilcox also said the notion that 300 wolves comprises an adequate population is “the science of the past,†and maintains that between 2,000 and 5,000 wolves are needed to avoid inbreeding and maintain a healthy, genetically diverse population.

“There is no scientific evidence that there has been any kind of genetic exchange between Yellowstone wolves and wolves in western Montana and the Glacier area,†Wilcox said. “Those wolves are breeding with siblings.â€

Although wolves have been known to disperse from the Yellowstone area into Idaho, they typically do not migrate to Yellowstone from other areas, like Glacier National Park and Idaho, Wilcox said.

“It's not just about numbers, it's about conductivity,†she said.

Attorneys for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services said a population of 300 would contain enough successfully reproducing packs to fully achieve the recovery objectives for the gray wolf. No wolf population of that size and distribution has gone extinct in recent history, unless it was deliberately eradicated, attorneys said.

James Knight, an ecologist at Montana State University and expert for the defense, said in a court declaration that wolf killings will not cause a serious population decline. Instead, he argues that the wolf population's natural growth will surpass kill rates and that state management plans will not threaten population levels during the litigation process.

“I have come to the conclusion that current wolf populations have very little chance of being significantly reduced by humans if wolves remain under the control of current state management plans during current legal disputes over their classification as an endangered species,†Knight said.

Molloy must now decide whether to issue the injunction, or order that the states' plans and laws to manage wolves are adequate.

Defendants in the case include numerous cattlemen associations in Montana and Wyoming and big-game hunting proponents, including Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, the National Rifle Association, Friends of the Yellowstone Elk Herd and Safari Club International.

Among the plaintiffs in the case are the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Humane Society of the United States, Center for Biological Diversity, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater and Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

Gray wolves were among the first species to be listed by the secretary of the Interior as endangered when, alarmed by the pace of species' decline, Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

“The wolf has been restored here. Why reverse that success?†Wilcox said. “Why put into place the same killing mechanisms that got the wolf placed under the Endangered Species Act in the first place?â€

Talking about wolves I had a pack of about 10 wolf pubs come out onto the road and look at me the other day. Tehy go to with in about 75 yards before they ran back into the woods.

A good wolf.

Bagged him at the end of March, on the Ya Ha tinda.
Grizz

Looks like a very nice hide I can hardly wait for wis to open up a season. But Iam not holding my breath.

From WY G&FD:

Federal Court Decision Changes Wolf Management in Wyoming

CHEYENNE—A decision issued today in federal court will have significant impacts on the way wolves are managed in Wyoming. Judge Donald Molloy issued an injunction to suspend the removal of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains from the federal Endangered Species List.

Wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains were removed from the Endangered Species List in March 2008. A number of environmental groups are challenging the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s delisting decision. Today’s injunction effectively returns management authority for wolves in the region to the federal government while these legal challenges are heard.

Under state management, wolves in Wyoming were classified as Trophy Game animals in the northwest corner of the state and Predatory animals in the rest of the state. In the Trophy Game area, wolves could only be taken by hunters with a wolf hunting license during an open season or by ranchers who had been issued a lethal take permit by the Game and Fish. In the Predatory Animal area, wolves could be taken by anyone at any time.

As a result of today’s injunction, wolves can no longer be taken anywhere in Wyoming except in cases where wolves are in the act of attacking livestock. Ranchers who are experiencing livestock depredation problems anywhere in the state should contact their local Wyoming Game and Fish office.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department and US Fish and Wildlife Service are currently drafting a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to cooperatively manage wolves in Wyoming until a decision is reached on wolf delisting. Under this agreement, the department will likely remain active in monitoring, conflict resolution, and law enforcement activities related to wolves in the state under the authority of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Under the proposed MOA, the department will be active in wolf management only in the Trophy Game area.

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The judge is a dumb ass! But the feds and G&F will cull the wolves as they have been! We now have three government trappers in this county alone, all have shot numerous wolves. They are much more effective than hunters, and they have far more assets availible to do their job! What a liberal limp wrist this judge is.

This Easterner has come to realize from reading various threads in this forum that the whole subject of wolves is one for Westerners alone to handle - and I'm not sure that a Federal judge should be one of the players in decisions about wolves. Several years ago I started out with very set opinions about how wolves should be "protected". Westerners in their posts convinced me that the subject was a lot more complicated than just simply "protecting" wolves. (Today, I don't think that any Westerner wants wolves to be exterminated. Westerners do want wolves to be controlled in some fashion in the modern West - and Easterners should forget romantic notions about wolves. They are deadly predators (I have read that they are the most successful of all four legged predators) and their presence spells trouble for cattle herds and sheep and for game -going far beyond "balance of nature" considerations. I wonder if someone can take this Federal judge on a countryside tour a few years down the road -so he can see the real results of "protecting" wolves in the modern West.

Gerry 375; very intelligent post if you havent lived here and seen the destruction and mayhem these canadian wolves can cause on livestock and dogs you wouldnt believe it.We can go out to gathier and move pairs who normally wouldnt pay any any attention to our cow dogs but w/wolves around they will come through your horse after a dog,and these wolves kill cow dogs w/regularity.w/regards

I was hoping the season would open on wolf. I would be happy to ante up and pay for a guided hunt to shoot one in Idaho.

Hopefully it can be reversed, they go back to court Monday 4th.

Steve

Every so called environmentalist needs a pack in close proximity of their home where they'll decimate the pet population and they'll have daily encounters with these sweet cuddly furry harmless critters.All of our protectionists in CA live in cities like San Francisco where they don't have the opportunity to encounter the poor defenseless animals they work overtime protecting like mtn lion.

Right is Right! Shoot....Shovel....ShutUp!