Judge restores protection for wolves

[A-con]

BILLINGS, Mont. - A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula granted a preliminary injunction late Friday restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080719/ap_on_sc/wolf_delisting

 

[A-con]

Seems to me like there were a few Hunt Talkers that were busting my chops and telling me to eat crow because I thought a law suite might postpone the wolf hunting season.

Don’t make me start busting out the quotes ………

 

[shoots-straight]

I for one had faith in the system, I was wrong. This guy parading around as a judge, has embarrassed his profession. His job is to uphold the law, not look for biological science to support a theory. In the old days people would find a big tree to throw a loop with 13 knots over. I wish we were in the old days.

 

[noharleyyet]

Does wolf taste as good as Texas water buffalo?

 

[JoseCuervo]

Seems to me like there were a few Hunt Talkers that were busting my chops and telling me to eat crow because I thought a law suite might postpone the wolf hunting season.

Don’t make me start busting out the quotes ………

A-Con,

go break out the quotes...... I think you will find many that said the Wyoming welfare rancher's and the cowboys that run that state would sink all three state's plans. And, guess what? That is what the Judge said....

Wolves again have federal protection
A judge issues an injunction that returns the wolf to the endangered species list for now and halts hunts planned this year in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

In this undated file photo provided by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service a gray wolf is seen. A federal judge in Montana has ordered gray wolves in the Northern Rockies be returned to the endangered species list. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction Friday, July 18, 2008, restoring federal protections for the wolves.

The wolf is back on the endangered species list.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction late Friday that will put wolves in the Northern Rockies back under federal government management. That decision also means Idaho, Montana and Wyoming will have no wolf hunting seasons this fall.

Molloy said the Natural Resources Defense Council and 11 other wolf advocacy groups demonstrated they would likely win the case on the merits of their arguments, Molloy said in his opinion.

The group filed a request for an injunction against delisting in April in hopes of stopping the hunts and allowing the wolf population to continue expanding. It also argued that state management plans are inadequate to ensure the long-term conservation of wolves.

The news left Defenders of Wildlife spokeswoman Suzanne Stone in Boise elated and emotional. After learning of the decision in a phone call from The Associated Press, she let out a scream and tried not to cry.

"This will enable the wolf population to remain stable and not be eradicated during the time that this lawsuit is reviewed, and that's the most important thing that we were hoping for," she said.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, who said he planned to bid on the first wolf-hunt tag, is disappointed with the decision, his spokesperson said.

Molloy made his decision based on the wolf advocates' claim that wolves in Yellowstone National Park were not genetically mixing with other wolf populations, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said was necessary. He also criticized the Wyoming plan, which had 90 percent of the state open for wolf killing year-round.

But Molloy said the Montana and Idaho wolf plans were good enough to protect wolves, at least as well as the federal rules in place when the wolves were delisted.

"Idaho law is sufficiently similar to the (federal) regulations to provide assurance that Idaho's depredation control law will not likely threaten the continued existence of the wolf in Idaho," Molloy wrote.

Still, the decision means that Idaho won't have a hunting season this fall.

"It's unfortunate," said Steve Nadeau, the large carnivore manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. "We certainly don't agree with the judge."

The NRDC said 106 wolves have been killed in the 118 days since wolves were removed from the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act. More than 2,000 wolves are estimated to live in an area that includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and small parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.

"The federal court just offered a badly needed lifeline to wolves in the Northern Rockies," said Louisa Willcox, NRDC Action Fund Wildlife Campaign director.

Idaho estimated it would have a spring population of 1,063 and authorized a hunting season that would have allowed the killing of up to 428 wolves.

But Molloy noted that the state plan had limits in place that would stop the statewide season once the overall mortality limit had been met.

Nadeau was pleased that Idaho's plan passed the judge's muster.

"All of our hard work to meet the high bar for delisting was fruitful," he said.

 

[A-con]

Lets hope you were right shoots-straight, and something happens between now and November to have this Judge reverse himself or be overruled.
This is one time when I would be more than happy to have been wrong.

Jose, if you would like to change the subject, please start another thread.

 

[BigHornRam]

Well now it's up to the USFW lawyers to earn their keep. $*)Q!#@$ Missoula judge. I knew this was going way too smoothly

 

[BuzzH]

I knew WY's plan was going to be a problem...only said that about 100 times in the last couple years.

 

[shoots-straight]

$*)Q!#@$ Missoula judge.

BHR, you made me laugh, I agree with you 100%. Weird huh.

Buzz, your right on, that plan of Wyoming's has been the problem, the judge asked the plaintiffs if they would allow him to offer a split on the decision allowing Montana and Idaho to continue. He contradicted himself, by saying this then saying Montana's cattlemen were killing too many wolves.

 

[BigHornRam]

Trying to butter me up so I forget about our little bet SS? It ain't working.

 

[shoots-straight]

Oh, BHR, I still have one year grace for the stalemate. We won't hunt this year, I'm certain. We'll see on the other part. Too think I was so close to those beers.