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Feds lower gray wolf protections
By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian
Gray wolves will no longer be protected as endangered species in the northern Rocky Mountains, a testament to the success of transplant programs and to the patience of ranchers whose land wolves again roam, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The reclassification from "endangered" to "threatened" will give federal biologists greater flexibility in managing the steadily growing population of wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming - and is the first step toward removing wolves from all federal protection, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Steve Williams.
"Wolves are coming back," he said, "and their new status highlights our progress toward recovering them across their range."
Tuesday's announcement also included the reclassification - again to threatened - for wolves in the Midwest and eastern United States, and the removal of 16 southeastern states from the wolf recovery effort. Wolves never inhabited those states, and should never have been listed as endangered there, Williams said.
Wolves remain endangered in the southwestern United States, where work continues to recover a healthy population of Mexican wolves.
"In 1974, just shortly after the Endangered Species Act came along, gray wolves in the United States had declined to the point where they were confined to a very small portion of their historic range," said Craig Manson, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks in the Department of Interior.
"Today, we can say the gray wolf is recovered," he said. "That is the kind of success we're talking about."
As threatened species, wolves will be managed and protected by the federal government, but managers will have more discretion in dealing with conflicts - most often, when wolves attack livestock or pets.
When authorized to do so by federal officials, private landowners will be able to harass - but not kill - wolves that come too near to domestic animals, said Joe Fontaine, assistant wolf recovery coordinator for the northern Rockies.
"In the Ninemile Valley, for example, we've got wolves coming around subdivisions," he said. "They are being seen, they're close to people and they've killed some animals. We believe that if landowners are able to harass those wolves - to push them away - that we can prevent livestock losses."
Fontaine said wolf managers will show private landowners how to use rubber bullets and cracker shells to shoo wolves off their property. In the end, he said, "we'll probably lose fewer wolves and fewer livestock."
Since 1987, federal damage control officers have killed 148 wolves because of conflicts with humans and domestic animals in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, Fontaine said. "Each year, we're taking about 5 percent of the wolf population through control efforts."
The removals haven't hampered recovery in those states, though, because wolves have increased their numbers by about 26 percent a year, he added.
By Fish and Wildlife Service estimates, there are 664 wolves in 44 packs in western Montana, Idaho, and in and around Yellowstone National Park. For three years running, there have been more than 30 breeding pairs in those states - the target set when wolves were given federal protection.
Gray wolf numbers in the western Great Lakes have also hit the government's recovery target, with more than 2,445 wolves inhabiting Minnesota, 323 in Wisconsin and 278 in Michigan.
And while Tuesday's announcement might have come amid cheers from environmentalists, it instead brought criticism and the likelihood of lawsuits because of what one attorney called "overreaching" by the federal government.
The government didn't simply change wolves' status to threatened in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, but throughout the West - in northern Colorado, northern Utah, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and California, where there are no wolves.
Unless wolves find their way into those states of their own accord, there will be no other populations in the West, Sullivan said.
Thus the denouncement by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife that the Fish and Wildlife Service "is turning its back on one of its crowning achievements" by limiting the areas where wolves will again roam the lower 48 states.
"Returning the wolf to a portion of its former range has been a remarkable achievement for the Fish and Wildlife Service and for conservationists across the country," he said. "But quitting before the job is finished threatens everything we've all worked for."
"The goal of the Endangered Species Act is species recovery, not perpetually holding off extinction," Schlickeisen said. "We're so close to that goal with the gray wolf that it would be tragic for us to stop now."
"In poll after poll, the majority of people around the country say they want successful wolf restoration in the United States," said Nina Fascione, Defenders' vice president for species conservation. "We must not stop short of that goal."
By limiting wolves to three of nine Western states, the government also invites a legal challenge of any attempted delisting, said attorney Tom France of the National Wildlife Federation in Missoula. And legal action would almost certainly delay plans to hand off wolf management to the states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
"I think the service is spoiling for a court test on what their responsibilities are under the Endangered Species Act," France said. "They want a court to tell them whether they've done enough for wolves."
And while that's an interesting legal question, France said, "it sells Montana, Idaho and Wyoming short. The issue now is how best to move downlisting and delisting forward in these states where we've done an excellent job of wolf recovery."
The government's getting into a "fuzzy area" by trying to say that wolves are no longer endangered in states where they do not even exist, he added.
In a telephone news conference, the author of the reclassification defended its wide geographic reach. "The Endangered Species Act requires that we pull species back from the brink of extinction for the foreseeable future," said Ron Refsnider. "Our feeling is that these three wolf populations bring us back from that brink. We don't have any plans at this point to expand our recovery programs."
"We will focus on the recovered wolf populations and on what's necessary to maintain that recovery," he said.
The federal government's wolf recovery efforts are among the most comprehensive and quickly successful in the history of the Endangered Species Act, said Gary Frazer, the Fish and Wildlife Service's assistant director for endangered species. "The success following the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho was dramatic."
"This is very significant," he said, "and something that I think is unique and worthy of celebration."
By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian
Gray wolves will no longer be protected as endangered species in the northern Rocky Mountains, a testament to the success of transplant programs and to the patience of ranchers whose land wolves again roam, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The reclassification from "endangered" to "threatened" will give federal biologists greater flexibility in managing the steadily growing population of wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming - and is the first step toward removing wolves from all federal protection, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Steve Williams.
"Wolves are coming back," he said, "and their new status highlights our progress toward recovering them across their range."
Tuesday's announcement also included the reclassification - again to threatened - for wolves in the Midwest and eastern United States, and the removal of 16 southeastern states from the wolf recovery effort. Wolves never inhabited those states, and should never have been listed as endangered there, Williams said.
Wolves remain endangered in the southwestern United States, where work continues to recover a healthy population of Mexican wolves.
"In 1974, just shortly after the Endangered Species Act came along, gray wolves in the United States had declined to the point where they were confined to a very small portion of their historic range," said Craig Manson, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks in the Department of Interior.
"Today, we can say the gray wolf is recovered," he said. "That is the kind of success we're talking about."
As threatened species, wolves will be managed and protected by the federal government, but managers will have more discretion in dealing with conflicts - most often, when wolves attack livestock or pets.
When authorized to do so by federal officials, private landowners will be able to harass - but not kill - wolves that come too near to domestic animals, said Joe Fontaine, assistant wolf recovery coordinator for the northern Rockies.
"In the Ninemile Valley, for example, we've got wolves coming around subdivisions," he said. "They are being seen, they're close to people and they've killed some animals. We believe that if landowners are able to harass those wolves - to push them away - that we can prevent livestock losses."
Fontaine said wolf managers will show private landowners how to use rubber bullets and cracker shells to shoo wolves off their property. In the end, he said, "we'll probably lose fewer wolves and fewer livestock."
Since 1987, federal damage control officers have killed 148 wolves because of conflicts with humans and domestic animals in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, Fontaine said. "Each year, we're taking about 5 percent of the wolf population through control efforts."
The removals haven't hampered recovery in those states, though, because wolves have increased their numbers by about 26 percent a year, he added.
By Fish and Wildlife Service estimates, there are 664 wolves in 44 packs in western Montana, Idaho, and in and around Yellowstone National Park. For three years running, there have been more than 30 breeding pairs in those states - the target set when wolves were given federal protection.
Gray wolf numbers in the western Great Lakes have also hit the government's recovery target, with more than 2,445 wolves inhabiting Minnesota, 323 in Wisconsin and 278 in Michigan.
And while Tuesday's announcement might have come amid cheers from environmentalists, it instead brought criticism and the likelihood of lawsuits because of what one attorney called "overreaching" by the federal government.
The government didn't simply change wolves' status to threatened in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, but throughout the West - in northern Colorado, northern Utah, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and California, where there are no wolves.
Unless wolves find their way into those states of their own accord, there will be no other populations in the West, Sullivan said.
Thus the denouncement by Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife that the Fish and Wildlife Service "is turning its back on one of its crowning achievements" by limiting the areas where wolves will again roam the lower 48 states.
"Returning the wolf to a portion of its former range has been a remarkable achievement for the Fish and Wildlife Service and for conservationists across the country," he said. "But quitting before the job is finished threatens everything we've all worked for."
"The goal of the Endangered Species Act is species recovery, not perpetually holding off extinction," Schlickeisen said. "We're so close to that goal with the gray wolf that it would be tragic for us to stop now."
"In poll after poll, the majority of people around the country say they want successful wolf restoration in the United States," said Nina Fascione, Defenders' vice president for species conservation. "We must not stop short of that goal."
By limiting wolves to three of nine Western states, the government also invites a legal challenge of any attempted delisting, said attorney Tom France of the National Wildlife Federation in Missoula. And legal action would almost certainly delay plans to hand off wolf management to the states of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
"I think the service is spoiling for a court test on what their responsibilities are under the Endangered Species Act," France said. "They want a court to tell them whether they've done enough for wolves."
And while that's an interesting legal question, France said, "it sells Montana, Idaho and Wyoming short. The issue now is how best to move downlisting and delisting forward in these states where we've done an excellent job of wolf recovery."
The government's getting into a "fuzzy area" by trying to say that wolves are no longer endangered in states where they do not even exist, he added.
In a telephone news conference, the author of the reclassification defended its wide geographic reach. "The Endangered Species Act requires that we pull species back from the brink of extinction for the foreseeable future," said Ron Refsnider. "Our feeling is that these three wolf populations bring us back from that brink. We don't have any plans at this point to expand our recovery programs."
"We will focus on the recovered wolf populations and on what's necessary to maintain that recovery," he said.
The federal government's wolf recovery efforts are among the most comprehensive and quickly successful in the history of the Endangered Species Act, said Gary Frazer, the Fish and Wildlife Service's assistant director for endangered species. "The success following the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho was dramatic."
"This is very significant," he said, "and something that I think is unique and worthy of celebration."
