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.

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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.

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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.”

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From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .

Wolf advocates have opted not to appeal a federal court decision that let wolf hunting seasons proceed in Montana and Idaho.

“We’re anxious to get to the merits of our case,” said Doug Honnold, lead attorney for EarthJustice, the law firm representing 14 environmental and conservation groups that want the gray wolf returned to federal endangered species list protection. “The best way to do that is to speed up the merits process than have an appeal ongoing at the same time.”

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U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho can continue pending results of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental groups.

Here is a selection of today’s press coverage . . .

From the Daily Inter Lake:

A federal judge said Wednesday that gray wolf hunts in the Northern Rockies can go on, denying a request by environmentalists and animal welfare groups to stop the first organized wolf hunts in decades in Idaho and Montana.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said plans to kill about 20 percent of the two states’ estimated 1,350 wolves would not cause long-term harm to the population. He said federal biologists had shown the animal could sustain a 30 percent annual reduction without long-term harm.

But Molloy added that by carving Wyoming out of the recent decision to remove wolves from federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service appeared to violate the Endangered Species Act by making its decision based on political boundaries.

Molloy said that means environmentalists could ultimately prevail in their bid to restore endangered species protection for the animals.

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From the Missoulian:

Wolf hunters won the battle, but wolf supporters may win the war in the lawsuit over hunting the once-endangered species in Montana and Idaho.

U.S. District Judge Don Molloy turned down requests to stop 2009 wolf hunting seasons in the two states in an order released late Tuesday evening. In his 14-page opinion, Molloy said the 13 conservation groups opposing the hunts failed to show wolf populations would suffer irreparable harm, even if individual wolves were killed by hunters.

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From the Flathead Beacon:

A federal judge said gray wolf hunts can go on for the first time in decades in the Northern Rockies, just months after the animals were removed from the endangered species list.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy denied a request by environmentalists and animal welfare groups to stop the hunts in Idaho and Montana, saying plans to kill more than 20 percent of the estimated 1,350 wolves in the two states would not cause long-term harm to the species.

Read the entire article . . .