Judge orders federal wolf protections restored

Decision likely ends planned wolf hunt for this fall

By :JASON KAUFFMAN

A federal judge in Montana has ordered gray wolves in the northern Rockies be returned to protected status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The decision likely means that hunters in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho will not be heading to the hills this fall in pursuit of the wily predators. That includes Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, who has said he would like to bid on the chance to be the first to shoot a wolf when the state opens its first wolf-hunting season.

In his decision Friday, July 18, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction that immediately restores the ESA protections for wolves. Back in March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially delisted gray wolves living in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Washington, Oregon and northern Utah from the federal protections. 

Since 1995 and 1996, when 66 wolves were reintroduced into central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, the wolf population in the northern Rockies has grown to some 2,000 animals. 

After the delisting, environmental groups, including Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, sued to have the controversial decision reversed. The groups claimed, among other things, that state regulations will not adequately protect wolves and allow them to interbreed with wolves living in other states.

On that score, Molloy seemed to agree with the environmentalists.

In particular, the judge said the Fish and Wildlife Service acted arbitrarily in delisting the wolf despite a lack of evidence of genetic exchange between sub-populations in the three states. The federal agency also acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it approved Wyoming's 2007 state management plan despite the state’s failure to commit to managing for 15 breeding pairs and the "plan's malleable trophy game area," he said.

"In both instances, the Fish and Wildlife Service altered its earlier position without providing a reasoned decision for the change based on identified new information," Molloy wrote in his decision.

The judge's decision is only a temporary move intended to stop the accelerated killing of wolves in the tri-state area since the delisting, which environmentalists claim is proof that the states are not ready to take over management of the species. Barring a successful appeal of Molloy's decision, the reinstatement of ESA protections for the northern Rockies gray wolf will stand until a final resolution is made on the larger question of whether the Fish and Wildlife Service acted properly in delisting the wolf.

See Wednesday's edition of the Mountain Express for more on this developing story. 

To read an in-depth story about living with the wolf in Idaho, pick up a copy of the Sun Valley Guide Summer 2008 edition, available at newsstands or by logging on to www.svguide.com.