Idaho, Montana wolves to be delisted
BOISE – The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday his agency will start removing federal protections from gray wolves in Montana and Idaho by January, regardless of whether Wyoming has submitted an acceptable plan to manage its own wolves by then.
And while portions of Idaho north of Interstate 90 were excluded from previous discussions of withdrawing federal protections, federal officials now say all Idaho wolves would be placed under state management. Wolves are still uncommon in that northernmost portion of the state.
The feds would also hand over management of wolves in Eastern Washington and Oregon, where wolves are extremely rare.
Wyoming’s plan is tied up in lawsuits, and Fish and Wildlife Director Dale Hall said his agency is moving ahead with Idaho and Montana, where management plans are already in place.
Defenders of Wildlife, which advocates on behalf of wolves, vowed to fight the federal move, saying delisting by states is illegal.
Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rocky Mountains a decade ago after being hunted to near-extinction and now number more than 1,200 in the region. With the rising population, state officials including Idaho Gov. Jim Risch and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer have been pushing the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove Endangered Species Act protections that the officials say hamper control efforts aimed at stopping the predators from eating livestock, as well as elk that are prized by hunters.
“They will be managed just as cats (cougars) and black bears are managed,” said Risch, following a meeting Tuesday with Hall in Boise. “Certainly, there will be a reduction from what there is right now. Because of the explosion in numbers, they’ve got to be controlled.”
Wolves that wander outside areas managed by states would still fall under federal protections, said Mitch King, a Fish and Wildlife Service regional director in Denver.
Idaho is estimated to have 650 wolves in about 60 packs, while Montana has 270 and Wyoming 309.
After delisting, Idaho’s federally approved wolf-management plan requires maintaining a minimum of 15 packs, while Montana has a benchmark of 15 breeding pairs.
Both states already have most day-to-day oversight of their wolves; sanctioned control actions every year kill dozens of the predators suspected of killing or harassing cattle. Still, Idaho and Montana lack the authority to schedule legal hunts or kill wolves for reasons such as helping restore elk herds.
Hall said his agency concluded it needed to move forward with delisting to reward states that, like Idaho and Montana, have significant numbers of wolves as well as management plans in place. “Our attorneys are very comfortable with this,” Hall said. “This is happening because it’s the right thing to do. It’s tied to all of us trying to make the Endangered Species Act work the way it’s supposed to work.”