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FARM BUREAUS: ENVIROS’ WOLF ARGUMENTS LACK MERIT

January 28, 2010 - For Immediate Release
Contact: William Perry Pendley

DENVER, CO. Two western farm bureaus today urged a federal district court in Montana to uphold the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to remove wolves imported into Idaho and Montana from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Both the Montana Farm Bureau Federation and the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), all three of which intervened in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, aver that the gray wolf in the northern Rocky Mountains is a distinct population segment (DPS) of the gray wolf and may be removed from ESA protection given plans by Idaho and Montana regarding the predator despite arguments by the environmental groups. The DPS designation was made by the FWS as to gray wolf populations in Idaho and Montana in April 2009. Environmental groups challenged that decision in a June 2, 2009, lawsuit.

“The arguments made by the environmental groups in their brief are without merit, contrary to law, and illogical,” said William Perry Pendley, MSLF president. “Moreover, the environmental groups lack the legal ability, that is, ‘standing’ to bring this lawsuit, which should be dismissed. The decision by the agency to delist the wolf should be sustained.”

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) once roamed the northern Rocky Mountain region; however, due to their predation on livestock, the federal government permitted their killing; by 1930, wolves had been almost eliminated in the region. In 1973, the FWS listed the Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf (Canis lupus irremotus) as “endangered” and, in 1978, listed the gray wolf as “endangered” in the lower 48 States, except Minnesota where it was listed as “threatened.” In 1994, the FWS captured wolves in Canada, imported them into the United States, and released them in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. By 2002, the wolf population had achieved its numerical, distributional, and temporal recovery goals, and the FWS began its delisting process.

In January 2004 and in July 2007, the FWS determined that Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming had wolf management plans that would maintain viable wolf populations. In February 2008, the FWS identified the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS of gray wolves and removed it from the ESA list. In April 2008, environmental groups sued to prevent the FWS from delisting the wolf. Such an order was granted in July 2008; in October 2008, the court vacated the FWS plan and the FWS’s determination as to Wyoming and remanded the case to the FWS. In October 2008, the FWS reopened the comment period; MSLF filed comments on November 25, 2008. On April 2, 2009, the FWS issued its rule to delist the wolf in Montana and Idaho.

Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest law firm dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system. Its offices are in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area.

Defenders of Wildlife v. Salazar, Nos. 09cv77, 09cv82 (D.Mont.)