Conservationist backtracks on wolf remarks
By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian
Lambasted by his fellow conservationists for remarks he made at a law
conference in Missoula last week, National Wildlife Federation attorney
Tom France issued a written statement Monday chiding the federal
government for failing to recover the gray wolf “on suitable habitat
across a significant portion of its historic range.”
“Removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the West
is clearly premature,” France said in a statement issued by the Wildlife
Federation’s Washington, D.C., office.
France was on vacation and could not be reached to elaborate on the
statement.
However, the group’s national communications director said France’s
comments at last week’s Public Land and Resources Law Conference in
Missoula caused “some difficulties” and were contrary to the federation’s
national wolf policy.
During a panel discussion Thursday afternoon, France said he was dismayed
when a coalition of 17 environmental groups filed suit hoping to stop the
removal of wolves from federal protection.
The return of wolves to Montana, Idaho and Wyoming is a success story
unequaled in the act’s 30-year history, France said, yet conservationists
seem intent on “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”
“I am disappointed that these groups cannot find another, better way to
move wolf recovery forward,” he said.
By insisting that the federal government return wolves not only to
Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, but also to Colorado, Oregon, Utah and other
Western states, the environmentalists’ lawsuit threatens to undermine
public support for endangered species protection, France said.
The remarks apparently ignited a firestorm, not only within the
environmental community, but also within the National Wildlife Federation.
NWF communications director Ben McNitt said the group felt “it was
important that our national policy be clearly articulated.”
France’s comments at the conference, carried in a Missoulian story Friday
and then in a subsequent Associated Press story, “created some confusion
and controversy,” McNitt said.
McNitt could not say why France made the comments. “I wasn’t there,” he
said.
But the statement released Monday, he emphasized, is the Wildlife
Federation’s official policy.
As released, France’s statement said:
“The National Wildlife Federation and other conservation organizations are
in agreement that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has failed in its
mandate under the Endangered Species Act to recover the gray wolf on
suitable habitat across a significant portion of its historic range.”
Last month, the statement said, the Wildlife Federation filed a 60-day
notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service over its national
wolf rule – which would not reintroduce wolves to a number of states
historically inhabited by the species.
The National Wildlife Federation wants the federal government to recover
wolves on suitable habitat in places like Maine and New Hampshire,
according to France’s statement.
He continued: “The National Wildlife Federation is focusing its legal
resources on a campaign to restore the gray wolf to its rightful place in
the northeastern United States and supports those groups working to
restore the gray wolf to other portions of its historic range.”
Bill Snape, chief counsel for Defenders of Wildlife, said he did discuss
France’s remarks with the Wildlife Federation’s senior attorney in
Washington, D.C.
Snape is lead counsel on the environmentalists’ lawsuit against the Fish
and Wildlife Service, and was at Thursday’s conference in Missoula.
“I expressed my less-than-happy views in private, and they will remain
private,” Snape said. “But I am pleased that they issued the statement
clarifying Tom’s remarks.”