Fish and Wildlife Service to delist gray wolves
BREAKING NEWS:
By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian, January 14 2009 [here]
Montana’s gray wolf may be off the federal threatened and endangered species list next month.
“We believe this is a major success story for conservation,” deputy secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett said Wednesday in a teleconference from Washington, D.C. “We’ve laid the groundwork for recovery to continue far into the future.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials decided to delist most of the wolf populations in the continental United States, including those in Montana, Idaho, Utah and the Great Lakes states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. However, they stopped short of including Wyoming’s wolf population, citing that state’s inadequate wolf management plan.
The change should be published in the Federal Register next week, Scarlett said. It will formally take effect 30 days after publication.
Delisting means wolf management will become a job for state and tribal wildlife agencies instead of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. There are about 1,500 wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains. That includes about 390 in Montana and 788 in Idaho. Wyoming has about 340 wolves.
Federal gray wolf recovery coordinator Ed Bangs said the FWS would continue to work with Montana’s Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to study and manage wolf populations. In addition, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management would continue their respective wildlife management efforts. And Montana agencies would be able to tap between $700,000 and $800,000 in remaining federal wolf management budgets for their local efforts, Bangs said.
FWS officials acknowledged incoming Obama administration appointees could reverse the delisting decision if they wished. But they said the science backs up their stand that now is the right time.
“The bottom line is wolves are fully recovered, and they should be delisted,” Bangs said. “It’s the right time and the right thing to do.”