Bush Administration Strips Legal Protections for Northern Rockies Wolves;

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0221-19.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2008
4:36 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Michael Robinson, Center for Biological Diversity, [phone]

Bush Administration Strips Legal Protections for Northern Rockies Wolves;
Conservationists to Fight for Wolves in Court

SILVER CITY, NEW MEXICO - February 21 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the removal of wolves from the Endangered Species Act’s list of endangered and threatened species in a vast area of the northern Rocky Mountains and adjoining regions today. The move will strip wolves of federal protections throughout all of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana and portions of Utah, Oregon, and Washington. Officials from both Idaho and Wyoming have made clear that they intend to dramatically increase the numbers of wolves that are shot and killed.

Over 85 percent of the area where wolves will soon be officially “recovered” has no wolves in it, but any wolves traveling to those regions may be subject to aerial gunning, trapping, and even poisoning.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, decades before passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, exterminated wolves from the West,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Bush administration, acting on behalf of the livestock industry, is attempting to thwart recovery and bring wolves back to the brink of extinction.”
Although there are more than 1,500 wolves in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, only a fraction of those animals reproduce, since within each wolf pack only the alpha male and alpha female breed. Thus the genetically effective population is much lower than the total number of wolves. Furthermore, Wyoming and Idaho intend to kill approximately half their wolf populations, to reduce them to 15 breeding pairs in each state.

Wolves in Yellowstone are completely isolated; since reintroduction in 1995 there have been no wolves documented to have traveled from elsewhere into the Yellowstone ecosystem and successfully bred. Recent peer-reviewed research predicts genetic “inbreeding depression” and resulting lower litter sizes in wolf packs in Yellowstone within a few decades.

The Center for Biological Diversity and allied conservation organizations sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its April 1, 2003 rule downlisting wolves from endangered to threatened — a prelude to removing them entirely from the list of protected species. A federal court reversed that downlisting on January 31, 2005.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is making the same legal mistake now as it did in 2003, and imperiling wolves’ survival,” said Robinson. “This time, just like last time, this illegal action will not stand in court.”
The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation organization with more than 40,000 members dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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[Muttocracy]

1. It's actually important that species go off the ESA when they recover

Otherwise conservatives can fight against the Endangered Species Act on the grounds that once a species goes on it will never come off. A species or subspecies (regional population of the species in question) can be put back on the list at any time if their populations decline below the federal thresholds, or if the fed. doesn't like a state's management plan (provided we elect sensible administrations that let the science agencies do their jobs).

Let me say that personally I think every wolf is precious, but I also know that the reintroduction to Yellowstone would not even have been possible if the population had not been designated as experimental (thus subject to lethal control in cases of livestock kills). I gave money to Defenders of Wildlife because them putting their money where their mouth is on compensating ranchers went a long way toward settling local opposition to the Yellowstone reintroduction.

I've never heard of that particular conservation group (I have an M.S. in ecology so I'm aware of many conservation groups). Their statistics and positions don't sound like what I've heard from the International Wolf Center or Defenders of Wildlife over the years. Wolves recolonized Idaho and Montana naturally from Canada, and my understanding a few years ago was that you could no longer say the Idaho/Montana and Yellowstone populations were separate, since wolves range over hundreds of miles. I haven't followed things as closely the last couple of years because I moved from Minnesota (the other wolf area in lower 48) where I could go to meetings on wolf conservation easily, and I fell on tough times financially and my memberships to IWC and DoW lapsed.

I'm much more concerned about other species that need to be on the ESA list but are not, or who are on the list but little is being done to help them and they may go extinct in the next couple of decades.

My two cents anyway. Here are takes from FWS and Dow on it:

http://www.wolf.org/wolves/news/live_news_detail.asp?id=2930
FWS press release on IWC site, in part:

“The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery
goal and continues to expand its size and range. States, tribes,
conservation groups, federal agencies and citizens of both regions can be
proud of their roles in this remarkable conservation success story,” said
Scarlett, noting that there are currently more than 1,500 wolves and at
least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Service-approved state management plans will provide a secure future for
the wolf population once Endangered Species Act protections are removed and
the states assume full management of wolf populations within their borders.
The northern Rocky Mountain DPS includes all of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming,
as well as the eastern one-third of Washington and Oregon, and a small part
of north-central Utah.

“With hundreds of trained professional managers, educators, wardens and
biologists, state wildlife agencies have strong working relationships with
local landowners and the ability to manage wolves for the long-term,” said
Lyle Laverty, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. “We’re
confident the wolf has a secure future in the northern Rocky Mountains and
look forward to continuing to work closely with the states as we monitor
the wolf population for the next five years.”

The minimum recovery goal for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains was
set at a minimum of 30 breeding pairs (a breeding pair represents a
successfully reproducing wolf pack) and a minimum of 300 individual wolves
for at least three consecutive years. This goal was achieved in 2002, and
the wolf population has expanded in size and range every year since.

“These wolves have shown an impressive ability to breed and expand – they
just needed an opportunity to establish themselves in the Rockies. The
Service and its partners provided that opportunity, and now it’s time to
integrate wolves into the states’ overall wildlife management efforts,”
said Service Director H. Dale Hall.

Gray wolves were previously listed as endangered in the lower 48 states,
except in Minnesota, where they were listed as threatened. The wolf
population in the western Great Lakes was delisted in early 2007. When the
delisting of the Rocky Mountain population takes effect 30 days from its
publication in the Federal Register on February 27th, the Service will
oversee the only remaining gray wolf recovery program, for the southwestern
U.S. wolf population. The delisting announced today affects only the
northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves. Gray wolves found
outside of the Rocky Mountain and Midwest recovery areas, including the
southwest wolf population, remain protected under the Endangered Species
Act and are not affected by actions taken today.

---

http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2008/02_21_2008_wolves_lose_protection_under_endangered_species_act.php

in part:

The removal of federal protections for the gray wolf puts its continued survival in the northern Rockies at the mercy of the woefully insufficient state management plans developed by Wyoming, Idaho and—to a lesser extent—Montana. These plans call for dramatic reductions in wolf populations in the region.

“We will support delisting of the northern Rockies wolf when the states establish sustainable management plans that ensure viable, interconnected wolf populations throughout the region,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. “Unfortunately, the current state plans seem designed to lead only to the dramatic decline and need for quick relisting of the wolf. That’s not in anyone’s best interest.”

Before a species can be delisted, FWS must determine that it does not face continued threats that could undermine the species’ survival. This criterion is not met under the state management plans which ignore scientific estimates that, for species to remain viable, there should be several thousand individuals, and wolf populations in the northern Rockies must be interconnected with larger wolf populations in Canada. With no federal protections in place, existing state management plans would permit wolf populations in the northern Rockies to be drastically reduced by as much as 70 percent, and eliminate any likelihood of establishing connections with Canadian wolf populations or promoting the establishment of wolf populations in other states such as Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Colorado.


edit to add article by L. David Mech, world's top wolf scientist:
The Challenge and Opportunity of Recovering Wolf Populations
http://www.wolf.org/wolves/learn/wow/regions/United_States_Subpages/ERecoveryandManagement1.asp

[XemaSab]

3. True dat

That's why the focus is on "recovery."

I don't think any species that have been delisted have crashed yet. Do you know of any?

[Muttocracy]

4. I don't know of any - very few have been removed from it

Bald eagles are doing well. wolves were only listed as threatened in MN, and maybe never on the list in Alaska? or else just threatened. I'm forgetting my history on it.

But I'm glad someone sees my point! :hi:

[LNM]

5. No, they were endangered in Mn.

They were moved off the endangered list last year. Now they are managed.

From the MN. DNR page:

Federal rules removing the Great Lakes population of gray wolves from the endangered species list took effect in Wisconsin and Michigan as well. Wolves will be managed in Minnesota by state statute, rule and under a wolf management plan. Read the Delisting FAQ.

The state wolf plan is designed to protect wolves and monitor their population while giving owners of livestock and domestic pets more protection from wolf depredation. It splits the state into two management zones with more protective regulations in the northern third, considered the wolf's core range.

The plan establishes a minimum population of 1,600 wolves to ensure the long-term survival of the wolf in Minnesota. The state's wolf population, estimated at fewer than 750 animals in the 1950s, has grown to its current estimate of 3,020. There will be no public hunting or trapping seasons for wolves for at least five years. The endangered species act requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor wolves in Minnesota for five years after delisting to ensure that recovery continues.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/wolves/mgmt.html

[Muttocracy]

6. no, threatened is a lesser status on the End. Spp. list (not delisted)

delisted means totally off the list (after recovery); threatened and endangered are two levels of protection on the end. Spp. List.


http://www.wolf.org/wolves/learn/wow/regions/United_States_Subpages/History1.asp

1978 Minnesota Legislature enacted a state compensation program to pay livestock owners for losses from wolf depredation.

The Eastern Timber Wolf Recovery Plan was published. It called for 5 wolf management zones in Minnesota, the reestablishment of wolves elsewhere, a limited public harvest in Minnesota, and reclassification from endangered to threatened in Minnesota.

Minnesota wolves were reclassified from endangered to threatened. This change allowed the USFWS to kill wolves in areas where wolves had killed livestock.


http://www.fws.gov/endangered/factsheets/listing.pdf

What does “endangered” mean?
A species is listed under one of two categories, endangered or threatened, depending on its status and the degree of threat it faces. An “endangered” species is one that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. A “threatened” species is one that is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. To help conserve genetic diversity, the ESA defines “species” broadly to include subspecies and (for vertebrates) distinct populations.

(edit to fix bold HTML)

[meow2u3]

2. Meanwhile, he expanded protection from the law for the two-legged wolves

at Halliburton, Blechtel, etc.:grr:

[Muttocracy]

7. now, don't be insulting wolves, OK ? :-)