Martz will press for wolf delisting
Associated Press
HELENA (AP) – Gov. Judy Martz on Friday vowed to continue pressing the
federal government to let Montana take over management of wolves.
“We’re going to keep pushing,” she said. “We’re going to be a pain to
them.”
However, she said pressing to shoot wolves on sight won’t work.
“The reality just doesn’t allow it,” she told Rep. Dan Fuchs,
R-Billings.
Fuchs wrote House Bill 283, which says wolves would become
shoot-on-sight predators by June 1, 2004. That provision would kick in if
the federal government doesn’t remove wolves from the list of endangered
species by then or if environmentalists sue to keep wolves on the list.
The bill easily passed the House and
awaits Senate action.
Martz, several members of her administration and lobbyists for the
state’s livestock industry met with Fuchs Friday and were united in their
message: The deadlines in the bill are unworkable, and if the measure did
become law it likely would result in wolves never being delisted.
Fuchs later said he would remove the deadline provisions.
Federal officials have said wolves are biologically recovered, but to
remove protections officials must have legal assurances that wolf numbers
won’t plummet again.
“If there’s an automatic trigger to revert to predator (status), we
won’t get delisting,” said Jeff Hagener, director of the Department of
Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Delisting isn’t expected until summer 2004 at the earliest. And it
won’t come at all unless Montana, Idaho and Wyoming all complete wolf
plans acceptable to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Earlier this week, the wildlife agency released its plan for
managing wolves after delisting.
Fuchs said one of his main goals with the bill is to pressure the
federal government to move ahead with delisting.
Todd O’Hair, Martz’s top natural resource adviser and a member of
Paradise Valley ranch family that has lost livestock to wolves, said the
best way to pressure the federal government is to complete an acceptable
management plan.
“Then we can go to the Bush administration and say, ‘We’ve held up
our part of the bargain. Now do yours,’ ” O’Hair said.
Environmental groups also agreed predator status was a bad idea.
“(Fuchs’) bill would derail the (delisting) process,” said Tom
Skeele, director of Predator Conservation Alliance.
Montana now has 16 breeding pairs and about 180 wolves. The state’s
wolf plan calls for retaining about 15 breeding packs after delisting,
while allowing ranchers and wildlife managers more flexibility to kill
problem wolves.