Ruling bans lethal wolf controls
By Kurt Krueger
News-Review Editor
A federal judge has rejected the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS) attempt to downlist the gray wolf from endangered to threatened, a decision that makes it illegal for game managers to kill problem wolves in Wisconsin.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ruled last Monday, in Oregon, that the agency’s 2003 rule to change the wolf’s status across the northern United States contained flaws.
Jones essentially ruled that the agency had wrongly lumped dozens of states into the downlisting process, though wolf recovery had only occurred in three states of the northern Rockies and three states west of the Great Lakes ý including Wisconsin.
The decision restores stringent protections for Wisconsin’s burgeoning population of more than 370 wolves, even prohibiting lethal control methods for wolves found to be depredating on livestock.
While FWS officials study whether to appeal the decision or revise its delisting strategy ý which could take years ý they could also pursue a special permit that allows Wisconsin wildlife managers the option of lethal control methods.
Adrian Wydeven, head of the state’s wolf recovery program, said the federal agency has a permit process that could restore lethal control methods in a state where wolf recovery has been successful.