Tag Archives: wolves

Lawsuits challenge new wolf rules in Northern Rockies

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Here’s a short Associated Press article covering both of the two lawsuits filed today opposing congressional removal of gray wolves from Endangered Species Act protection . . .

Environmental groups asked a federal judge Thursday to put gray wolves back on the endangered species list in the Northern Rockies.

Two lawsuits were filed in federal court in Montana as control over more than 1,300 wolves was turned over to state authorities in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Utah.

A federal budget bill rider in April had mandated Thursday’s lifting of wolf protections.

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Environmental groups file suit to stop wolf delisting

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As expected, a number of environmental groups filed suit in federal court today challenging congressional removal of gray wolves from Endangered Species Act protection. Here is the Missoulian’s write-up on one of the two suits . . .

A trio of wolf advocates claim Congress violated the Separation of Powers Doctrine when it removed gray wolves from Endangered Species Act protection and blocked future court review.

“We will not allow the fate of endangered species to be determined by politicians serving special interests,” Alliance for the Wild Rockies director Michael Garrity said in an email Thursday morning. “These decisions must be based on science, not politics, and Congress has never before removed species from the endangered species list by political fiat.”

AWR was joined by Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

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Wolves are off the Endangered Species List — again

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As of yesterday, wolf managment has been returned to state control in Montana and Idaho. Here is the Daily Inter Lake’s take on the subject . . .

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule Wednesday that officially removes wolves in Montana and Idaho from the Endangered Species list.

The rule comes on the heels of Congressional action that compelled delisting.

“We are implementing the recent legislation that directs the delisting of the gray wolf in most of the northern Rocky Mountains,” Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes said in a prepared statement. “As with other delisted species, we will be applying the Endangered Species Act’s post-delisting monitoring requirements to ensure that wolf populations remain robust while under state wildlife management.”

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Obama Administration: Gray wolves go back to state control — in as many as eight states

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This too-short Associated Press article claims that, besides returning management of gray wolves to state control in the Northern Rockies, the Obama administration proposes to do the same for a further 4200 wolves in the Great Lakes region . . .

The Obama administration says it is lifting Endangered Species Act protections for 5,500 wolves in eight states in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes.

The move will turn control over the predators to state wildlife agencies. Public hunts for hundreds of wolves already are planned this fall in Idaho and Montana.

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Obama administration taking wolves off endangered species list; return to state control Thursday

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Here’s a good article from today’s Missoulian on the imminent delisting of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies . . .

Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves officially return to state control Thursday, when their removal from Endangered Species Act protection is published in the Federal Register.

That means Montana and Idaho hunters will be back in the business of controlling wolf populations this fall. A bipartisan rider in the 2011 federal budget bill ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reinstate its 2009 wolf delisting decision and immunized it from further court challenges.

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Montana FWP wants quota of 220 wolves for fall hunt

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From today’s Missoulian . . .

Montana wildlife officials moved quickly to get fall hunting plans in place after the federal government returned the gray wolf to state management on Wednesday.

“We’ll propose tentative plans to the commission on May 12,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said shortly after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that wolves would no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act. “We expect a (hunting) quota of 220, up from 186 last year, and there will be a special wolf management unit in the Bitterroots with a specific quota to address the elk depredation problems there.”

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Idaho could set wolf hunt quotas by August

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From an AP article posted to the Missoulian’s web site . . .

Idaho wildlife policy makers could set wolf hunt quotas by August after Congress last month directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the predators.

There are currently an estimated 705 wolves in Idaho in about 87 packs, but Idaho Department of Fish and Game plans to update that information this month at a meeting in Lewiston.

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Adventures in wolf recovery ending for Ed Bangs as he retires from USFWS

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An interesting retrospective on Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery coordinator for the northern Rockies, who will be retiring in June . . .

Ed Bangs, who for 23 years led the effort to reintroduce and recover healthy wolf populations in the northern Rocky Mountains, is retiring from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in June.

As the federal agency’s wolf recovery coordinator, Bangs was the face of the polarizing wolf reintroduction, conducting thousands of international, national, state and local interviews and holding hundreds of highly charged meetings, all to explain the effort as part of a massive public outreach effort.

At various times, depending on the stage of the reintroduction, he was heralded as a hero while simultaneously being denounced as a wolf lover or hater, depending on people’s perspective.

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SB 414, Montana Wolf Control Act, voted down

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From a recent email sent out by Janet Barwick, NRDC Montana Wildlife Advocate . . .

Senate Bill 414, the Montana Wolf Control Act, has been voted down in the Montana House.  This bill would have made it legal to shoot wolves on private land, at any time, even without a hunting license, endangering the hard fought recovery of wolves in the Northern Rockies. It is highly unlikely that there will be a revision of this bill before the legislature recesses on April 30th, and unlikely that it will come up again in the special session slated for June.

Montana sportsmen ask state for quick action on wolves

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This article from yesterday’s Ravalli Republic is worth reading for context. It includes some indication of the likely quotas for this year’s wolf hunt, as well as information on the planning schedule . . .

Sportsmen’s groups from around Montana are asking wildlife officials to move as quickly as possible to implement the state’s wolf management plan once the animal is removed from federal protection.

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