Idaho is already spooling up for a wolf hunt this year. No word from Montana yet . . .
Officials with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game plan to meet with Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter on Monday to discuss a public wolf hunting season.
“We will be ready to have another hunting season,” said Jim Unsworth, deputy director of Fish and Game.
It’s official: Gray wolves are off the endangered species list in this corner of the country . . .
Federal wildlife officials say they will take more than 1,300 gray wolves in the Northern Rockies off the endangered species list within 60 days.
An attachment to the budget bill signed into law Friday by President Barack Obama strips protections from wolves in five Western states.
Seems like there’s also a move afoot to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species List in the Great Lakes region . . .
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making another attempt to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the endangered species list.
The agency says Friday that wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have recovered and no longer need federal protection. About 4,000 wolves roam the three states.
Here’s the Daily Inter Lake’s story on congressionally mandated delisting of wolves . . .
Congress passed legislation Thursday removing Montana and Idaho wolves from the Endangered Species list and returning management to the state, as part of a budget bill to continue federal funding this year.
The legislation was advanced by Montana Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, along with Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, in the House.
Tester said the overall package is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama.
This recent post to the Missoulian contains some additional information on the wolf delisting rider attached to the federal budget bill that is expected to be signed into law within the next few days . . .
The U.S. Senate passed a budget bill Thursday that will return gray wolf management to Montana and Idaho state control, settling the question whether the predator is endangered or recovered.
“Our provision does not undermine the Endangered Species Act,” said Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who led the effort to delist the wolf in Congress. “It recognizes the ESA as a success.”
Under a 2009 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisting rule, wolves reached the numbers needed for full recovery in 2002, Tester said in a conference call Thursday afternoon. There are almost 1,700 animals in the three-state area, including about 600 in Montana.
From today’s Missoulian . . .
Wildlife advocates are scrambling to remove from the federal budget bill a provision that would lift protections for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho.
John Motsinger with Defenders of Wildlife said Monday his group would continue to fight the provision “until it’s a done deal.” But time is running out, with final language for the bill expected to be released Monday.
This is not a huge surprise. Molloy refused to budge from his previous position that the Endangered Species Act does not provide for a staged withdrawal of protections based on political boundaries . . .
A federal judge has denied a proposed settlement agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 10 conservation groups that would have lifted endangered species protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula on Saturday rejected the agreement that could have led to public hunting of some 1,300 wolves in the two states.
In the 24-page decision, Molloy cited the court’s lack of authority to put part of an endangered species population under state management and expose that population to hunting, noting, “Congress has clearly determined that animals on the ESA must be protected as such,” and the court couldn’t “exercise its discretion to allow what Congress forbids.”
He also said he couldn’t approve the settlement proposed in March because not all the parties involved in the case agreed with it. Part of the argument for the settlement was that it could end litigation, but Molloy noted that was unlikely given the opposition by some to the proposed settlement.
From an AP article posted to the Missoulian’s online site . . .
Gray wolves in Montana and Idaho would be taken off the endangered list under the budget bill pending before Congress, two Western lawmakers said.
Inclusion of the language to lift protections for wolves was confirmed by the offices of Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson on Saturday.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. I did check to make sure it was not posted on April 1st . . .
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter says he likes what he sees in a bill that declares a wolf disaster state of emergency in Idaho.
From an AP article posted in yesterday’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
Lawmakers in the West said Friday they will keep pushing to lift federal protections for gray wolves despite a proposed settlement between environmental groups and the Obama administration.
The settlement would end a decade of lawsuits over the animals. But it faces significant legal hurdles that leave uncertain whether court approval will come before lawmakers act.