Bush Administration Strips Legal Protections From Northern Rockies Wolves

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Bush Administration Strips Legal Protections From Northern Rockies Wolves

 

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SILVER CITY, NM — 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

Thursday. 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.

 

 

 

Contact Info:

 

 

 

Michael Robinson

Center for Biological Diversity

Tel : 575-313-7017

 

 

 

Website : the Center for Biological Diversity

 

 

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Confucius