For Immediate Release December 15, 1997
Contact: Doug Honnold, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund
(406) 586-9699 Bozeman, Montana

Attorneys for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund today announced that they had recommended to their clients National Audubon Society, Predator Project, Sinapu and the Gray Wolf Committee that they file an appeal of Wyoming federal district court Judge William Downes' December 12th order that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service remove from Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho wolves that the Service transplanted into the Park and state in recent years.

"We want wolves to stay and prosper in the Northern Rockies," stated Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney Doug Honnold. "We will continue to fight to protect all wolves in the region." Honnold reiterated his clients' opposition to removing any wolves from the Yellowstone region and central Idaho.

"We have always vigorously opposed--and will continue to oppose--the efforts of the Farm Bureau to remove the transplanted wolves from Yellowstone and central Idaho." Judge Downes' order to eliminate the reintroduced wolves, and thus bring to an end the widely supported wildlife restoration effort, was made at the request of the Wyoming, Montana and Idaho Farm Bureau Federations.

The litigation before Judge Downes consists of three lawsuits concerning the Fish and Wildlife Service's importation of wolves from Canada and their release in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. In their suit, the National Audubon Society plaintiffs challenged the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to withdraw Endangered Species Act protection for naturally occurring wolves in central Idaho.

Meanwhile, despite the Fish and Wildlife Service's attempt to placate ranching interests by designating both naturally migrating and reintroduced wolves in central Idaho and the Yellowstone region as "experimental, non-essential," a designation that would allow for ranchers to shoot wolves that attack their livestock, the Farm Bureau brought a separate suit that asked for the capture or killing of all reintroduced wolves in the Yellowstone region and central Idaho.

Judge Downes issued his removal order in response to the Farm Bureaus' requests, but ruled that it will not go into effect until the federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has considered appeals of his decision. "The unfortunate reality is that our case got combined, against our wishes, with that of the Farm Bureau," Honnold said. "We are trying to enhance the recovery of wolves in central Idaho; the Farm Bureau is trying to stop wolf recovery in both Yellowstone and central Idaho."

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, is a non-profit law firm that represents conservation organizations seeking to enforce laws protecting the environment. Honnold is managing attorney of the organization's Bozeman, Montana, office, one of nine regional offices around the country.