From today’s Flathead Beacon, here’s the Associated Press’ take on the restoration of wolves to Endangered Species Act protection . . .
Wildlife advocates say a ruling to restore Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves throughout the Northern Rocky Mountains buys time to create a better plan than the one the judge rejected, one that ensures their numbers don’t dwindle again.
Posted this evening to the Missoulian website . . .
Wolves are back on the endangered species list, after U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled Thursday that populations in Montana and Idaho cannot be considered separately from Wyoming’s wolves.
In a 50-page decision, Molloy said “the rule delisting the gray wolf (in Montana and Idaho) must be set aside because, though it may be a pragmatic solution to a difficult biological issue, it is not a legal one.”
As expected, Montana FWP set this year’s wolf hunt quota at 186. The Associated Press has a write-up . . .
Montana wildlife regulators on Thursday set this year’s wolf-hunt quota at 186, more than doubling 2009’s quota, with the aim of reducing the state’s wolf population for the first time since they were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995.
Advocates for the wolf hunt hailed the decision, although some said they would still like to see a bigger number.
But whether a hunting season actually happens may be in the hands of a federal judge…
The Montana FWP commission will likely set this year’s wolf hunt quota at 186 this Thursday, up from last year’s 75. No word on quotas for the North Fork or other specific management areas yet.
State wildlife officials will recommend increasing the quota of wolves allowed to be killed by hunters this year to 186, compared to 75 in last year’s inaugural hunt.
The increased hunting quota could decrease the state’s wolf population for the first time since the gray wolf was reintroduced to the Northern Rockies in 1995.
Read the full article for details . . .
There were no surprises in the first day of the hearing on whether gray wolves should be placed back under the Endangered Species Act in Montana and Idaho. Both sides presented the expected arguments. Here’s the lead-in from a relevant AP story. . .
A federal judge heard arguments Tuesday on whether gray wolves in Montana and Idaho should be protected once more under the Endangered Species Act and whether those states can ensure the species won’t be wiped out under their management.
The latest round in the lawsuit regarding Endangered Species Act delisting of gray wolves kicks off Tuesday. Today’s Missoulian has a good overview of the situation . . .
The wolves themselves may be the only ones who won’t be at the Russell Smith Courthouse on Tuesday morning when U.S. District Judge Don Molloy returns to arguments about the predator’s Endangered Species Act status.
Here’s a wolf population status overview from an AP article appearing on today’s Flathead Beacon web site . . .
A new tally of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies shows the population held steady across the region in 2009, ending more than a decade of expansion by the predators but also underscoring their resilience in the face of new hunting seasons in Montana and Idaho.
The Missoulian has a good year-end review of Montana’s first wolf hunt.
Here are a few tidbits culled from the article…
The wolf hunt accounted for just over a third of the wolves killed during the past year. Poaching, “control actions” and other events accounted for the rest.
Eleven wolves were taken in Flathead County, the highest single-county total. This includes the two killed legally in the “North Fork Sub-unit.” Overall, three-quarters of the harvest came from seven counties.
Montana FWP must have kept fairly detailed statistics. For instance, the article states that, although most of the wolves killed were healthy, two had a slight case of mange, one had fleas, another had porcupine quills in its shoulder and two reportedly had hernias. (Huh? Hernias?)
From an AP article posted to today’s Flathead Beacon . . .
An examination of Montana’s first public gray wolf hunt showed at least nine of the animals were killed in an area prone to livestock attacks — a finding that could blunt criticism that the hunt was ineffective.
Confident state wildlife officials said they could increase the quota on the predators next year. They want to zero in on a number that would strike a balance between protecting the wolf population and curbing attacks on livestock and big game herds.
From today’s Missoulian . . .
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks claims wolves are recovered sufficiently to be delisted from the federal Endangered Species Act.
“The delisting of this population in Montana is a well-deserved victory for the ESA,” attorneys for FWP wrote in a brief filed in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year by conservation groups looking to overturn the delisting. “The delisting accomplished two fundamental goals of the ESA, to recover a species and transfer the care of the wolf from federal oversight to state management.”