Several groups say that will sue Fish and Wildlife Service for wolf control policies on the endangered wolves of NW Montana

10-11-2000, addition 10-12

Although the Department of Interior has proposed downlisting the wolves of NW Montana and extreme northern Idaho from endangered to threatened, several environmental groups and one animal rights group have sent them a 60-day notice of intent to sue on the basis that the endangered wolves are being indiscriminately killed as a result of livestock depredations.

This possible suit does not apply to the reintroduced wolves of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming which are classified as a "non-essential, experimental population."  Changing the status of NW Montana wolves to threatened would in theory make management very similar to the reintroduced "experimental" wolf population.

In fact, however, those wolves classified as endangered in NW Montana have always been managed just like the experimental reintroduced population, and this is, as far as I can tell, the basis of the 60-day lawsuit notice.

The natural population of wolves in NW Montana migrated down from Canada beginning in the 1980s, and it was thought they would be the first of the three wolf recovery areas in the Northern Rockies to reach the 10-pack goal. However, their population stalled out at just below 100 wolves and then went into serious decline to perhaps less that 40 wolves by 1998. The indirect cause (and perhaps much of the direct cause of the decline) was the severe winter of 1996-7 that decimated the deer population of NW Montana--the primary prey species of wolves there.

Hungry wolves increasingly turned to livestock and, as a result there were many control killings, and several packs were completed eliminated by government control actions.

In defense of government actions, an argument can be made that the wolf population is now rebounding due to the restoration of the wolves' prey base. The population this year is back to perhaps 90 wolves. So far this year only one Montana wolf has been killed in a control action. However, he was the alpha male of the Little Wolf Pack. Whether there would have been more wolves today had not so many controls been carried out in 1997 and 1998 is hard to say.

Some might argue this lawsuit is too late and will be moot soon anyway due to imminent downlisting of this wolf population.

On the other hand, I have always thought it odd that fully endangered wolves have been given no more, and perhaps less protection than the experimental wolves.

Here is the news release from Earth Justice, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Hunter's Voice, and the Center for Biological Diversity, announcing their 60-day notice. CONSERVATIONISTS CHALLENGE GOVERNMENT WOLF-KILLING PROGRAM.

Here is the story from the Oct. 11 Missoulian where Ed Bangs, head of the Northern Rockies Wolf Recovery, responds to the threat of a lawsuit. Biologist Defends Wolf Kills by Sherry Devlin. The Missoulian. 

10-12-2000 Here is another story about the suit from ENN. Conservation groups growl at Montana wolf recovery program. By Margot Higgins

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