The U.S. government said on Friday it had struck a deal with wildlife advocates to remove some 1,200 wolves in Idaho and Montana from the endangered species list.
Federal protections could be lifted from the wolves if a federal judge signs off on a settlement agreement filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Montana.
The wildlife groups had sued to keep roughly 1,600 wolves in the Northern Rockies on the endangered species list.
Under the proposed agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service and 10 conservation groups, the estimated 1,200 wolves in Idaho and Montana would be delisted and management of the animals, including target population numbers and hunting quotas, would be handed back to those states.
The government in 2009 approved wolf-management plans by Idaho and Montana and removed federal protections in those states, which established public hunts.
But the Fish and Wildlife Service declined delisting in Wyoming because 
its plan would have allowed most wolves to be shot on sight.
A U.S. District Court ruling in 2010 relisted wolves in Idaho and Montana. The federal judge in the case sided with 14 conservation groups, which had argued wolves in the Northern Rockies were part of a single population and that protections could not be left intact in Wyoming while they were lifted in the other two states.
Ten of the 14 conservation groups behind that legal action are now seeking to settle with the Fish and Wildlife Service, opening the way for licensed hunting in Idaho and Montana.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (right) on Friday hailed the move, calling 
it "a significant step forward."
"We need the authority to respond to the challenges wolves present every day," he said in a statement.
But it is by no means clear if the proposed agreement - even if the federal judge approves it - will give Montana and Idaho that authority.
Four of the 14 conservation groups have not agreed to settle, which could mean more legal filings to come.
Wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in the Northern Rockies before being added to the endangered species list.
Federal protection of wolves has been especially controversial since they were reintroduced to the wilds of central Idaho in the mid-1990s over the strong objections of ranchers and hunting outfitters, two powerful constituencies in the West.
Wolf foes say the animals are a constant threat to livestock and to 
big-game animals like elk.
Mike Clark, head of Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said that conservation group and nine others hope the settlement will provide relief in a region where anti-wolf sentiments have been running high.
"It's a way for people to accept that wolves are here to stay and to find a 
permanent way to manage them," he said.
The proposed agreement comes as a host of U.S. senators and representatives from Western states have pushed to delist wolves through congressional action, which would be unprecedented in the history of the Endangered Species Act.
Idaho officials said they were still reviewing the legal filings and would not be prepared to comment until next week.
Representatives of the four conservation groups that have not signed onto the settlement could not immediately be reached for comment.
Source:
Reuters,"Wolves could be removed from endangered species list",accessed March 21, 2011
A U.S. judge in Montana on Thursday ordered federal protection under the Endangered Species Act restored to the entire gray wolf population of the Northern Rocky Mountains.
The ruling overturns a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision in April 2009 that lifted wolf protections in Montana 
and Idaho, opening those states to public hunting of the animals, but kept protections in place in Wyoming.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Montana, agreed with environmental groups challenging the agency's move that allowing such piecemeal protection thwarts the purpose of the law to save an imperiled species from extinction.
"This stops the willy-nilly killing of wolves," said Suzanne Stone from Defenders of Wildlife, one of several groups that sued to regain federal safeguards for wolves in Montana and Idaho and to block wolf hunting in those states.
Ranchers called the court ruling a blow to their industry.
"It's a disappointing decision and puts our livestock in jeopardy even more," said Carl Ellsworth, head of the Idaho Cattle Association. "Without hunting those wolves, we've lost management of them and won't be able to control the population." (Right: wolf hunting bison)
Montana's state Department of Wildlife and Parks said it would immediately appeal Thursday's ruling.
NEAR EXTINCTION
Once abundant across most of North America, gray wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in much of the lower 48 states by the 1930s under a government-sponsored eradication program.
Decades later, biologists recognized that wolves had an essential role to play in mountain ecosystems as an apex predator.
The Rocky Mountain gray wolf was listed as endangered in 1974, and the Fish and Wildlife Service initiated a restoration plan for the region in 1995 by releasing wolves captured in Canada into central Idaho and the greater Yellowstone area.
Many ranchers, representing a key part of the region's economy and a powerful political constituency, have vehemently opposed the wolf recovery
initiative, seeing a growing and protected wolf population as a threat to their livestock.
Montana, Idaho and Wyoming game authorities also have bristled at federal restrictions on wildlife management, pressing instead for greater state control.
At last count, in December 2009, the gray wolf population in the Northern Rockies, including Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding region, was estimated at 1,700 animals.
But Doug Honnold, a lawyer for the environmental group Earthjustice, said the region's population would have to reach between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals in order to be considered viable by international standards.
Besides the institution of wolf hunts in Montana and Idaho, lifting Endangered Species Act protections gave ranchers greater latitude to kill wolves found to be threatening their cattle or sheep.
Wildlife conservation groups argue those threats are overblown.
Last year, 192 cattle deaths were attributed to wolf attacks in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho combined, according to the latest Fish and Wildlife Service figures. But in Idaho alone in 2005, more than 102,000 head of cattle or calves died from causes other than predators, government figures show.
Ranchers can seek reimbursement for livestock lost to wolves under a Defenders of Wildlife-run program. That group has spent more than $1.5 million for livestock compensation, as well as for measures to safeguard herds from wolf predation, such as fencing and horseback patrols, Stone said.
Even under the Endangered Species Act, federal authorities are allowed to kill so-called nuisance wolves or wolf packs.
A move to lift federal protections for a separate population of gray wolves in the Midwest and Great Lakes region was abandoned by the government after it was challenged in court by environmentalists.
Source:
Reuters, "U.S. judge restores wolf protection in Rockies", accessed August 5, 2010
The U.S. government said on Friday it had struck a deal with wildlife advocates to remove some 1,200 wolves in Idaho and Montana from the endangered species list.
Service and 10 conservation groups, the estimated 1,200 wolves in Idaho and Montana would be delisted and management of the animals, including target population numbers and hunting quotas, would be handed back to those states.
its plan would have allowed most wolves to be shot on sight.
it "a significant step forward."
Wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in the Northern Rockies before being added to the endangered species list.
big-game animals like elk.
permanent way to manage them," he said.
