Officials evaluating Wisconsin impact of Oregon wolf ruling
Associated Press
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating what effect a federal judge’s ruling in Oregon will have on efforts to remove Wisconsin’s growing population of gray wolves from federal protection.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland ruled this week that the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nation’s gray wolves.
A spokeswoman for the agency said Wednesday it’s too early to say what effect the ruling will have in Wisconsin.
“We just don’t know,” said Georgia Parham, the agency’s regional spokeswoman in Bloomington, Ind. “We really aren’t going to speculate what might happen. The lawyers are looking at it.”
Last fall, the Fish and Wildlife Service held hearings on a proposal to remove the wolf from the threatened species list in Wisconsin. That would allow some hunting and trapping of wolves to control the population. A decision was expected by June.
In April 2003, the Fish and Wildlife Service divided the nation’s wolf range into three areas and reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The Eastern segment covers the area from the Dakotas east to Maine, while the Western segment extends west from the Dakotas. The agency left wolves in the Southwest classified as endangered.
With the change, federal agents could kill problem wolves in Wisconsin rather than trap and relocate them to prevent them from preying on livestock and other domestic animals.
Jones ruled the government acted improperly by combining areas where wolves were doing well, such as Montana, with places where their numbers had not recovered.
The judge also found the Fish and Wildlife Service did not consider certain factors listed in the Endangered Species Act in evaluating the wolf’s status, including threats from disease, predators or other natural or manmade dangers.
Parham said Wednesday her agency was disappointed in Jones’ decision and was exploring whether to appeal it.
“We believe our rules provided for sound management,” she said.
Brian O’Neill, an attorney for Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental groups that sued over the agency’s wolf plan, said Jones’ ruling essentially means the agency will have to go back to the drawing board on managing wolves.
Adrian Wydeven, head of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ wolf management program, did not immediately return a telephone message Wednesday.
Wydeven has estimated Wisconsin’s wolf population at about 400 – some 50 more than the DNR’s goal.
The wolf is a native species that was wiped out in Wisconsin by the late 1950s after decades of bounty hunting. Since the animal was granted protection as an endangered species in the mid-1970s, wolves migrated into the state from Minnesota and their numbers have been growing ever since.
Minnesota has the largest wolf population in the lower 48 states at around 2,400.