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More Conservation Groups Join Wolf Recovery Appeal

(5-13-98)

Six more conservation organizations have petitioned the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to file an additional "friend-of-the-court" brief in the lawsuit wherein Judge William Downes of the Wyoming Federal District Court found the wolf reintroduction to be illegally due to a technicality, and he order all the wolves and their offspring removed.

For those who are unfamiliar with a friend-of the-court brief or its Latin name, Amicus Curiae, this is a set of legal argument (called a "brief") which they applicants believe a court should considers -- arguments which might not be made either by the plaintiffs or the defendant.

The news release follows below.

May 12, 1998

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:   Suzanne Laverty, Executive Director, Wolf Recovery
Foundation  (208) 321-0755
John McCarthy, Idaho Conservation League  (208) 345-6933

More Conservation Groups Join Wolf Recovery Appeal

Six national and Idaho conservation groups joined the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Tuesday in its effort to keep gray wolves in Idaho
and Yellowstone National Park.


The Idaho Conservation League, the Wolf Recovery Foundation and
other groups represented by the Environmental Defense Fund, filed an
Amicus Brief with the 10th District Court in Denver. The brief seeks
to overturn Judge William Downes finding that wolf reintroduction in
Idaho and Yellowstone was illegal.


Downes ruled in favor of the American Farm Bureau and the National
Audubon Society in December, finding the wolf reintroduction project
misused the Endangered Species Act.


"Wolf reintroduction is the best biological and economic plan for
restoring wolves to the Northern Rockies," said Suzanne Laverty,
director of the Idaho-based Wolf Recovery Foundation.  The plan
allows for protection of both wolves and livestock.  Removing these
wolves now defies common sense and compassion.


The reintroduction plan is ahead of schedule, with more wolves in
Idaho and Yellowstone reproducing than expected. The federal project
is also under budget.


"We've joined in the court conflict not only to support wolves in
Idaho and Yellowstone, but also to demonstrate Judge Downes based his
ruling on a misinterpretation of the Endangered Species Act," said
John McCarthy, conservation director of the Idaho Conservation League.


Michael Bean, attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, argues
the Secretary of Interior acted lawfully to establish experimental
wolf populations in both Idaho and Yellowstone.  Congress explicitly
authorized the Secretary to reduce the protection afforded individual
animals as a pragmatic means of getting a species successfully
restored into areas where they had been extirpated,  according to Bean in the
Amicus Brief. Bean noted the same method was used with many other
species including the red wolf, the California condor, and the black-footed ferret.


The other groups joining in the court action are the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Center for Marine Conservation and the Izaak Walton League of America. The National Wildlife Federation and Defenders of Wildlife earlier were granted the status of "intervenor" in this appeal.

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