Conservation groups are urging a federal judge not to allow the state of Wyoming to regain control of wolves. The groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2012. They're
challenging the agency's acceptance of Wyoming's wolf management plan,
which classifies wolves as predators that can be shot on sight in most
areas. "There's a real disagreement between what the science of wolf management
is and what the political decisions are that are being made," Adrienne
Maxwell, a Montana lawyer representing the conservation groups, said
Monday.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington, D.C., last week
entered an order returning wolves in Wyoming to federal control. Jackson agreed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that wolves in
the Northern Rockies have recovered. And she accepted the agency's
finding that wolves aren't endangered or threatened within a significant
portion of their range. But Jackson ruled the federal agency shouldn't have accepted Wyoming's
nonbinding promise to maintain at least 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs
outside of Yellowstone and the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Wyoming moved fast last week to try to get Jackson to reverse the decision.
Republican Gov. Matt Mead's administration last week pushed through an
administrative rule that started the process of making the state's wolf
plan legally binding. The state then pointed to that new rule in asking
Jackson to amend her decision.
Jackson has set a hearing for Tuesday to consider the state's request and other matters.
The state told the judge it wanted to resolve the issue quickly because
it has scheduled a wolf hunt starting Wednesday in a trophy-hunting zone
bordering Yellowstone National Park. The state game commission has
approved letting hunters kill up to 43 wolves in the hunting season.
Public hunting is not allowed under federal management.
Mead emphasized last week that state management is working. He said the
state had almost 190 wolves and 15 breeding pairs after the first
hunting season in 2012 and just under 200 wolves and 15 breeding pairs
after last year's hunt. "We're managing wolves correctly," Wyoming Attorney General Peter
Michael said. "But part of managing wolves is you have to kill some of
them."
Lawyers for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday filed papers
with Jackson saying they didn't believe she needed to scrap state
management entirely to address whether the state's minimum population
guarantee was binding. Lawyers for the Safari Club and other hunting
groups also supported continued state management.
Maxwell said the state's response to Jackson's order doesn't solve the
problems with the state wolf management plan. She said the state and
federal agency should craft a new plan.
The federal government reintroduced wolves in Yellowstone National Park
in the 1990s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service transferred wolf
management to state control in Montana and Idaho years ago. Congress
specified there could be no legal challenge to management plans in those
states, which also allow hunting.
No comments:
Post a Comment