Wolf rule found in violation

February 7, 2005 A federal judge ruled Tuesday that President George W. Bush’s administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the gray wolves in the U.S.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland, OR, rescinds a rule change that allowed ranchers to shoot wolves on sight if they were attacking livestock, said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

In April 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service divided the wolves’ range into three areas and reclassified the Eastern and Western populations as threatened instead of endangered. The Eastern segment covers the area from the Dakotas east to Maine, while the Western segment extends west from the Dakotas. The agency left wolves in the Southwest classified as endangered. But the judge ruled that the government acted improperly by combining areas where wolves were doing well, such as Montana, with places where their numbers hadn’t recovered.

“Now, instead of drawing lines on the map based on political considerations, any future lines must be based on science,” said Robinson.

The judge also found that Fish and Wildlife didn’t consider certain factors listed in the Endangered Species Act in evaluating the wolf’s status, including threats from disease, predators or other natural or manmade dangers.

Fish and Wildlife expressed disappointment in the ruling. “We believe our rule provided for biologically sound management of the core population of wolves in areas where we knew they could thrive as stable viable populations,” the agency said in a statement. “We also believe the rule was correct as a matter of law under the Endangered Species Act. We are currently studying the court’s opinion and working with the attorneys at the Department of Justice to better understand its implications and determine our future course of action.”

Mike Serxatore, vice president of Defenders of Wildlife, said the ruling would make it more difficult for the Bush administration to reduce or eliminate Endangered Species Act protection for other species.

Practically speaking, only wolves in northwestern Montana were affected by the rule change that allowed ranchers to shoot wolves on sight, said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service. The rule never extended to experimental populations in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Idaho and the rest of Montana, and no packs have been established in other states in the region, Bangs said.

By the 1970s, wolves had been virtually wiped out in the mainland U.S. to protect livestock. Gray wolves were reintroduced in and around Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, and federal wildlife officials have declared their recovery a success. Officials estimate there are now more than 800 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park.

In the Eastern sector, there are an estimated 3,200 wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. —