Judge Orders Protection for Wolves in 2 States
By FELICITY BARRINGER
A federal judge ruled Thursday that gray wolves in Montana and Idaho must be given the same protections under the federal Endangered Species Act as their cousins in Wyoming.
Wolves in the two states were removed from protected federal status under regulations proposed during the Bush administration and put into effect after President Obama took office. Last season, about 250 wolves were killed in hunts in Montana and Idaho, and both states had increased the number of wolves that could be harvested in 2010.
But Judge Donald W. Molloy of the District Court for the District of Montana ruled that to apply federal protections to wolves in Wyoming and not to those in the two other states was “like saying an orange is an orange only when it is hanging on a tree.”
Wolves, he ruled, “can be endangered wherever they are within the range” of the distinct wolf population covered by federal protections.
The court’s decision, in a case brought by environmental and animal protection groups, is the latest development in a long-running regulatory battle that reflects the emotional response to the reintroduction of wolves in the northern Rockies in the mid-1990s. Many hunters and ranchers have opposed protecting the predators. The Bush administration rule originally took Wyoming’s wolves off the endangered species list, along with those in the two other states. But that rule was legally blocked when state protections in Wyoming were deemed inadequate.
Reacting to the decision, Tom Strickland, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, said that despite what he called success in restoring wolf populations to health, “today’s ruling means that until Wyoming brings its wolf management program into alignment with those of Idaho and Montana, the wolf will remain under the protection of the Endangered Species Act throughout the northern Rocky Mountains.”
He added, “We will work closely with Idaho and Montana to explore all appropriate options for managing wolves in those states.”
Ed Mitchell, a spokesman for the Idaho Fish and Game department, said his office would review the decision before commenting on it.
After last fall’s hunting season, there were about 500 wolves in Montana and 835 in Idaho.