Funny how shooting some wolves means all wolves. No one has ever been able to kill all wolves in the entire history of our planet. However all our beaver are gone on Weitas Creek. Where have all the beaver gone? Gone to the wolves the old game warden said.
Mr. Tire, I found the article I refured to in above post.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Abandons Its Wolf Delisting Rule
On September 22, 2008, the United States Department of Justice filed a motion for a voluntary remand of the final rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to designate Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves as a distinct population segment and remove them from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife. If U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula grants this request, the agency would reconsider and revise the rule in response to issues raised in the lawsuit brought by Bozeman-based Earthjustice on behalf of twelve conservation organizations including Friends of the Clearwater. Concerned that even greater numbers of wolves would be killed without Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections, these plaintiffs secured a preliminary injunction from Judge Molloy on July 18, 2008 that influenced the present agency position reversal, temporarily reinstated wolf ESA status, and halted transfer of wolf management from the USFWS to state wildlife departments while the case proceeded. In his opinion and order, Molloy noted that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of their claims that: 1) the wolves had not met recovery criteria due to a lack of genetic exchange between their greater Yellowstone and other populations in northwest Montana and central Idaho; 2) Wyoming’s 2007 management framework was an inadequate regulatory mechanism; and 3) fall 2008 public wolf hunting seasons planned by Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming posed immediate potential harm for wolves. When the USFWS delisted gray wolves in the Northern Rockies on March 28, they asserted that wolf populations and distribution had exceeded reintroduction goals since 2002.
Even though gray wolves in the region are relisted as endangered, the insidious provisions of the ESA 10(j) clause, revised before delisting and again in effect, could greatly increase wolf susceptibility to extinction. As sanctioned by Secretary of the Interior and ex-Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne and the USFWS, this recent ESA re-interpretation permits wildlife officials of the three states to kill more gray wolves in certain circumstances because they are only protected as “experimental, non-essential populations” under the 10(j) rule. An earlier version of this exclusion from the usual, rigorous safeguards of the law eased wolf reintroductions in 1995 and 1996 and the subsequent conflicts that occurred between expanding wolf numbers and livestock interests. Under pressure from Idaho, Wyoming, a minority of hunters, and the Bush administration to further relax ESA restrictions and thus minimize wolf numbers, the USFWS on January 28, 2008 extended killing of gray wolves beyond those caught killing livestock to include state-agent hunting, even by aerial gunning, of wolves supposedly reducing the elk, deer, and other ungulate herds whose populations are above state objectives. Although elk numbers are at an all-time high throughout the region and wildlife studies have never found wolves to be the primary cause of big-game declines, each state can nonetheless kill all but 200 of the approximately 1,455 wolves that inhabit the Northern Rockies, even without public wolf hunts. Regional wolf populations are currently declining: humans have killed over 500 wolves since 66 of them were initially released and another 100 this year under the new 10(j) rule.
As demonstrated by an overwhelming majority of the comments submitted on the draft 10(j) rule by citizens and scientists, public support for wolf protection and recovery recognizes that wolves restore overall balance to ecosystems. By killing weak and sick animals and allowing recovery of riparian vegetation over-browsed by ungulates, wolves improve the strength and vitality of big-game herds and their habitat. To bolster the viability of wolf populations in the Northern Rockies, six conservation organizations and Friends of the Clearwater filed a lawsuit in January challenging the Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for revision of the 10(j) regulations. On July 23, only days after halting the reclassification and delisting rule, Judge Molloy denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss this case. His order also granted the government’s request for a 60-day stay of the case until September 22, to give the involved parties time to determine how to proceed.
