U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Turning Its Back On Wolf Delisting
September 17, 2008
According to a report filed by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Ed Bangs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the federal government is asking that their present plan to remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act be withdrawn.
Earlier this year the USFWS announced it would delist the gray wolf in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Immediately wolf-lover groups filed suit to stop the delisting and this spring Judge Donald Molloy issued a temporary injunction to stop the delisting. This effectively stopped any and all plans for wolf hunts and the opportunity for states to take over the management of the wolves.
It was thought by some, including myself, that because of the ridiculous ruling of Judge Molloy, the feds would appeal his decision but they seemed to be dragging their feet. With today’s announcement it appears that not only are the feds not going to appeal, they are going to withdraw their request to delist the wolf, at least for now.
This of course has set off a firestorm of rumors as people are trying to perceive what the feds are up to. Two rumors that cannot be substantiated are that one, the Department of Interior will leave the problem up to the next administration, which seems a bit irresponsible to me, or two, that the Department of Interior will submit and new plan for delisting that would not include the state of Wyoming.
The reasoning behind this is that in Judge Molloy’s ruling he took issue with Wyoming’s wolf management plan, even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had approved it.
I have some requests sent out seeking confirmation or information on this and will fill you in as soon as I get anything.
Tom Remington
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No mixing of the gene pool? That’s a real gotcha!
Malloy also criticized Wyoming’s plan, which left 90 percent of the state open for wolf killing year-round.
But the judge said the Montana and Idaho wolf plans were good enough to protect wolves at least as well as the federal rules in place when the wolves were delisted. Idaho estimated it had a spring population of 1,063 and, before Molloy’s ruling, had authorized a hunting season that would have allowed the killing of up to 428 wolves.
Bangs said shortly after the July decision that he was confident he could change the judge’s mind on the genetics issue. But Wyoming’s determination to let wolves be killed in much of the state was an issue that was harder to defend.
“Hopefully they’ll go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that better protects wolves,” said Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold, who had filed the lawsuit on behalf of environmentalists.
JUDICIAL ACTIVISM HALTS WOLF MANAGEMENT!
Here are the ANTI-HUNTING groups that sued to stop scientific wolf management:
Earthjustice
Defenders of Wildlife
Natural Resources Defense Council
Sierra Club
Center for Biological Diversity
The Humane Society of the US
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance
Friends of the Clearwater
Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Oregon Wild
Cascadia Wildlands Project
Western Watersheds Project
Wildlands Project
I have so many of these little stuffed wolves I donated them.
Please don’t ever pretend not to be Anti-Hunting to us ever again. You are very transparent in your attempts to divide our community. But our numbers are many and we have strength in unity
Ha-ha — no seriously, I only had 3 of them.
“The reasoning behind this is that in Judge Molloy’s ruling he took issue with Wyoming’s wolf management plan, even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had approved it.” The USFW had found Wyoming’s plan unacceptable a few years back and showed no reason for why the same plan was approved this spring.
“The reasoning behind this is that in Judge Molloy’s ruling he took issue with Wyoming’s wolf management plan, even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had approved it.” The USFW had found Wyoming’s plan unacceptable a few years back and showed no reason for why the same plan was approved this spring.
George - the 13 groups you mention as bringing suit are not anti-hunting organizations. All of them have hunters in their membership. I am a member of more than one of them and I am not opposed to hunting; while a resident of Idaho and later Montana I did hunt.
you might want to reconsider your affiliations.
There was a time I contributed to some of the above “groups” but after digging deeper into the motivating factors on there agendas. Gun control and reduced hunting (no hunting) it became apparent to me that I was being duped.
I have since avoided any group that has Diversity,Alliance,or Project as part of there identifier!
[...] It became official yesterday when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked that their original proposal to remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act be withdrawn and the wolf permanently placed back on the list. [...]
[...] was only one month ago and already Bangs announcement has to leave all of us wondering what in the heck he is doing? [...]