What's Happening: On the heels of federal judge Donald Molloy's ruling in favor of GYC and other conservation groups by restoring Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho, three congressional bills have been drafted in an attempt to circumvent the law. Sen. Chet Edwards, a Democrat from Texas, wants to exempt wolves from ESA protections in the entire Lower 48 states. Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch want wolves delisted in Idaho and Montana, and Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester are seeking delisting only in The Treasure State. GYC believes that congressional action will only further polarize the wolf issue and we are still hopeful that we can bring stakeholders in the region together to work within the parameters of the ESA to produce solutions that will eventually return wolf management to the states. Moreover, the ESA is an effective law that has worked for four decades and should remain intact.
In issuing his ruling Aug. 5, Molloy agreed with our argument that it was against the ESA for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to remove protections in those two states but not in Wyoming. Among other things, the ruling means there will be no hunting seasons in Idaho and Montana this fall. While certainly a victory for GYC and wolves, it is now time to roll up our sleeves and work even more closely with federal and state governments to create management plans that address the concerns of all key stakeholders.
A few days earlier, science came down on the side of wolves again when the Idaho Department of Fish & Game released a study showing that wolves aren't even having a significant impact where elk numbers are declining. As reported in several state newspapers, Idaho researchers looked at 11 elk herds and found only one where wolves have made a substantive dent, and even those losses were more attributable to habitat decline. This is consistent with information out of Wyoming that says elk-hunter success has remained much the same even in areas where wolves and grizzly bears are present.
Despite last year's hunting seasons in Idaho and Montana, wolf numbers held steady in the Northern Rockies in 2009. Fifteen years after their restoration in Yellowstone and central Idaho, an estimated 1,700 wolves roam the Northern Rockies (including 115 breeding pairs): 500 in Montana (down slightly), 320 in Wyoming (up slightly) and about 850 in Idaho (about the same). About 455 are in Greater Yellowstone, including 96-98 wolves in Yellowstone. In September 2009, a ruling by federal judge Donald Molloy in Missoula denied an injunction that would've halted the hunts in Idaho and Montana. But at the same time he said conservation groups likely would win on the merits of their lawsuit later. In other words, while asserting he didn't think hunting would do "irreparable harm" to the wolves he suggested that dividing wolf populations among artificial political lines probably wouldn't meet Endangered Species Act standards — meaning the wolves could soon return to full protections in all three states. Read about the wolf plans in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
The Issue: The return of the gray wolf to the northern Rockies has been one of the greatest conservation success stories and possibly the most controversial. Since the reintroduction in 1995, wolf numbers have steadily increased in the GYE. In 2009, wolves were removed from Endangered Species Act protections in Idaho and Montana, with ESA protections continuing in Wyoming. Under this plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contends that mixing between the two populations of wolves in central Idaho and the GYE does not have to be "natural." Instead wolves could be trucked between states or artificially inseminated. Montana and Idaho established management plans that may not achieve and maintain genetic connections as required by the northern Rockies gray wolf recovery goals. In Wyoming, wolves remain protected under the Endangered Species Act because the state's management plan is inadequate. We are opposed to this illegal piecemeal approach to delisting. Idaho's hunting proposals are so aggressive they threaten Idaho wolf populations in Greater Yellowstone and, thus, threaten connectivity with populations in central Idaho and beyond.
Our Mission: To move toward sound science-based management and to work on the ground with the people who live, work and recreate in Greater Yellowstone to build greater tolerance for a thriving wolf population. So long as hunting is a part of the equation, the focus should be on removing wolves via fair-chase means in areas where they have been known to cause conflicts with livestock. We are also working to increase social tolerance through education and outreach.
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