Federal district judge says central Idaho and Yellowstone wolves must
be removed!
12-14-97
Federal district judge William Downes of the Wyoming federal judicial district has, after three years of waiting, issued a decision that the reintroduction of wolves from Canada into central Idaho and Yellowstone violated the Endangered Species Act. He has ordered all of the reintroduced wolves removed, including their offspring. This order has been "stayed" pending appeal of his ruling to the tenth circuit US court of appeals.
A "stay" means the order will not be carried out until a ruling is issued by this higher court, assuming an appeal is made, and it will be.
The "removal" undoubtedly means killing the wolves. Canada does not want the wolves back, there is no money to capture them and take them back, about half of the original wolves are now dead, but their offspring born in Idaho and Yellowstone are numerous.
The judges' ruling does not affect the 60 or 70 wolves in NW Montana that migrated on their own down from Canada beginning in the early 1980s.
Most people had forgotten about the lawsuit that was filed by the Farm Bureau and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (SCLDF) before the first wolves from Canada were brought to central Idaho and Yellowstone, but both organizations, used the argument that there were existing wolves in the area. This was a last gasp attempt argument by the Farm Bureau to stop the reintroduction. For SCLDF (now renamed the Earth Justice Defense Fund and which is NOT the legal arm of the Sierra Club) it was an attempt to guarantee that the handful of existing Idaho wolves would get more protection through under the endangered species act than the "experimental non-essential" designation the new wolves would have.
I have not seen the text of the decision, but I find it grossly in error and an example of judicial law-making of the very kind many congressionals disapprove.
- No native wolves have been identified in the Yellowstone region since the reintroduction. The two possible cases were almost certainly hybrids. A native wolf was shot at Fox Park in 1992.
- There clearly was at least one native wolf in central Idaho. He paired with Idaho number B15F to form the now seven or eight member Kelly Creek Pack in north central Idaho. No other Idaho natives have been confirmed, although there probably were two or three. Several native wolves from the Nine-mile pack in Montana have now migrated to northern Idaho. One of these was recently shot illegally.
- The native wolves in Montana are genetically the same as the reintroduced wolves. They are not a sub-species, nor even a genetically distinct population.
- On the ground the ESA has not given the supposedly "fully protected" Montana native wolves any more protection than the "experimental" wolves. In fact, if people read my wolf reports, the native wolves such as the Murphy Lake Pack and the Boulder Pack have been shot for the same "offenses" as the reintroduced wolves.
- The fact that the judge waited three years should have made the case "moot," a judicial term that changes in the facts have made the basis of the case irrelevant. I don't know that "removal" is possible because many wolves have no radio collars, although they could easily track down wolves like famous no. 9 and kill them.
- While a few groups may say this is really a "victory" of some sort because the
remaining wolves will have more protection, consider that:
- The "fully ESA-protected" wolves of NW Montana have not been protected on the ground any more than the reintroduced wolves.
- The NW Montana wolves have gotten into more livestock trouble because the areas they reinhabited were reached by chance. For a wolf to find the good wolf country in central Idaho and Yellowstone is purely a hit- or-miss-proposition.
- Because there is no way to separate a "native" wolf from the largely uncollared offspring of reintroduced wolves, any removal campaign will threaten the native wolves too.
- All of typical anti-wolf, anti-wildlife, anti-national park, anti-wilderness, anti-environmental politicians are praising the judge's decision: Representatives Helen Chenoweth, Representative Barbara Cubin, Senator Larry Craig, Senator Conrad Burns, etc..
One irony of the decision is that Judge Downes said once the transplanted wolves are removed, the strict rules of the Endangered Species Act will apply, forbidding the shooting of wolves for any reason. How we will hold them to it!
This is truly a sad decision. Because of this, I have turned my page black.
It is only the iceberg of the attempt by Western browns to destroy America's parks, wildlife, and wild country. If you want to know more about what the browns are up to, see my bison slaughter page.
Let's hope the court of appeals judges show more wisdom and less of a political agenda.