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June 27, 2011 in Nation/World
Wolf’s delisting could imperil other species
WASHINGTON – The Endangered Species Act has long had its foes, particularly in the West.
But in recent months, the law has taken an unprecedented hit from Congress. Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, used a budget bill signed into law by the president to return to the states of Idaho and Montana the right to manage their wolf populations.
It’s the latest move in a long-raging battle over how to manage gray wolves that has pitted environmentalists, ranchers, state wildlife managers and the federal government against each other.
It effectively took the wolves off the federal endangered species list in those two states, sidestepping provisions in the Endangered Species Act that give citizens the ability to use the courts to force the government to act on endangered species.
Environmentalists say they fear the successful wolf delisting language will open the act to new legislative attacks. It “has certainly emboldened certain members who for political reasons see a benefit in stopping new listings,” said Mike Senatore, vice president of conservation law at Defenders of Wildlife. “It set exceedingly bad precedent.”
They were particularly alarmed by one of the first evidences of fallout: an amendment filed earlier this month by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who wants to stop the proposed listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard in New Mexico. He joins House Republicans, who have filed legislation to stop the potential listing of the lizard and the lesser prairie chicken.
Cornyn, who has joined Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., in saying that the proposed listings could shut down oil and gas production in parts of west Texas and eastern New Mexico, called the lizard a “scaly political pawn.” Its listing would “score points with radical environmentalists,” he warned earlier this month.
But in a report, the Center for Biological Diversity points out that the proposed habitat is 5 percent – or about 2,920 acres – of the 52,874 acres offered for oil and gas lease since the beginning of 2010. The environmental group also accuses the lawmakers who oppose the listings of being too closely tied to the oil and gas industry.
“It really fits into their message of the big, bad federal government,” the center’s Noah Greenwald said of Republicans. “It also reflects their corporate interests – their campaign contributors in the oil and gas industry.”
Although Simpson took the lead on the language that returned the gray wolf to state management, he said he, too, has some concerns about the door that may have been opened by the move. Simpson oversees Interior Department spending as the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that approves the agency’s budget. He worries that his legislation could become a vehicle for amendments that target specific listings.
Environmentalists have a point, Simpson said: Congress shouldn’t meddle with the process of the Endangered Species Act. He argues that the wolf listing language was about allowing Montana and Idaho to separate their successful state wolf management programs from Wyoming, which does not have one. It didn’t change the law, he said, or interfere with a pending listing.
“In general I agree with them,” Simpson said of the argument environmentalists have made about meddling with the Endangered Species Act. “I don’t want Congress or our bill to be the delisting bill. So I’m going to try to prevent that, to some extent.”
But Simpson also said there’s much work to be done to tackle what he thinks of as flaws in the Endangered Species Act.
“My concern is that what the Endangered Species Act has become is not an act to save species,” he said. “It’s an act to control land and water. If it was to save species, we would be delisting these things.”
The law has had some notable successes, however: the bald eagle, the brown pelican, the Aleutian Canadian goose, American alligators, the American peregrine falcon and the eastern North Pacific population of the gray whale.
Both the dunes sagebrush lizard and the lesser prairie chicken are in dire need of protection, said Mark Salvo of WildEarth Guardians, an environmental group. The chickens, a type of grouse, are “celebrated as icons of the arid landscapes where they occur,” Salvo said.
Stocks plummet as outlook in Europe dims 
polistra on June 27 at 2:45 a.m.
Good. Anyone who understands evolution knows that the ESA is an antiscientific direct insult to evolution, an attempt to prevent natural adaptation from occurring. Get rid of the whole thing, return to normal conservation practices.
hawken on June 27 at 6:09 a.m.
The overpopulation of wolves is harming the elk herds and ranchers.
Even with game and fish allowing for the hunting of a limited number of wolves, assisting in helicopters themselves, they have not been unsuccessful in downsizing the numbers to the point they need to be.
It’s a “state problem.” Let state, game and fish biologists and local populations make the decision.
Bureaucrats in Washington D.C. and radical environmental preservationists are the last ones to make the call.
leekinny on June 27 at 6:37 a.m.
polistra said: “an attempt to prevent natural adaptation from occurring”…
It’s not natural if it is caused by the human animal.
fishinjay on June 27 at 6:49 a.m.
ESA is a good law, but it’s being bastardized by both the extreme right and left. The politicians want to disregard it when it’s convenient for business, and the environmentalists try to disregard it when the science fails to support their “feelings.”
The intent of the law is to keep species from going extinct. I’m fully in support of that. In the case of the wolves, the wildlife biologists who know the state of these animals better than anybody else say that the species is recovered in Idaho and Montana, and that delisting is acceptable.
This article, and the comments so far, completely ignore both the intent of the law and the science in this situation. What a pathetic mess.
leekinny on June 27 at 7:25 a.m.
The gray wolf and Congress, from the Sierra Club…
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/join-the-sierra-club-in-preventing-gray-wolf-delisting.php
maria on June 27 at 8:44 a.m.
“Plan to kill north Idaho wolves having little success”
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_6377b2fc-9f85-11e0-a666-001cc4c002e0.html
johnclarke on June 27 at 8:56 a.m.
“The overpopulation of wolves is harming the elk herds and ranchers. ”
The overpopulation of people with low IQ’s is harming America more than wolf packs. There is no evidence, NONE that wolves are harming elk herds. Elk herds are being wiped out by disease caused by guess what? Ranchers that raise domestic elk and deer - it’s called chronic wasting disease.
This disease has all spread locally to the SR and some of the people posting. They chronically waste everyone’s time by posting fiction and lies as fact.
KopperBuck on June 27 at 10:39 a.m.
johnclarke - as you put it so well, please quit wasting everyone’s time by posting fiction and lies as fact.
CWD - Chronic Wasting Disease is NOT the problem. As much as I balk at some of the game ranching that goes on - you need to get your facts straight.
It has yet to be detected in the wild in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, or Montana. So please, don’t waste our time by making up stories.
johnclarke on June 27 at 11:28 a.m.
You know what, you are totally right. I guess I should have pointed out that the disease is wiping out herds of Elk across the country but it has not been detected yet here. In the future I will be more careful about my evidence and refering to areas that are not specifically the Northwest. Even though the disease is literally next door to Idaho, you are right. Elk recognize state borders and will not enter the Northwest.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/cwd/
I can provide this evidence that is specific to the topic, and Idaho.
http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/news/article_b48259ac-9ec0-11df-9cd9-001cc4c03286.html
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/news/fg_news/10/aug.pdf
More evidence. Cougars are killing as many as wolves in some cases. Hunters kill as many or more. Snow kills many Elk.
wsmith on June 27 at 11:52 a.m.
It is shameful for undereducated unrealistic people to comment about an animal that none of us truly understand.
This animal is known for taking down animals that are either sick or weak and play a very important role in helping our herds remain strong and healthy.
People sometimes dont see that these creatures are a nurturing societal species that are definatly not well understood.
I recently saw a person with a sticker on his truck in North Idaho that said Smoke a Pack A Day with crosshairs on a wolf.
Personally if he shows up on my several hundred acres with a firearm and unloads on a single animal he will be in prison and I feel thats where people like him belong anyway.
Lack of understanding.
greenlibertarian on June 27 at 12:43 p.m.
If anyone has credible evidence to refute this, please do so.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/cwd/
CougarGold on June 27 at 1:22 p.m.
greenlib - In Googling, here is a contrary perspective from an Idaho F&G commissioner in SE Idaho:
“From a wildlife perspective, there’s no question that this growing wolf population has had a devastating impact on our elk populations and our moose populations,” he said. “Our scientists’ and biologists’ studies on all these collared packs indicate that each wolf eats an average of 16 elk per year, so if you do the math and are being conservative, our 1,000 wolves are eating 16,000 elk per year.”
Read more: http://www.journalnet.com/news/local/article_639aacda-1232-11df-87ef-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1QVefzxC6
There are probably equal numbers of articles stating the impacts versus non-impacts of wolves.
leekinny on June 27 at 2:46 p.m.
Bullied by Idaho big game hunters…
“We would also ask that you do not reappoint Randy Budge as Commissioner. If we are going to turn things around we are going to have to have someone with a big game back ground. Most sportsmen in this area feel that he is not very knowledgeable in wildlife and big game. He does not have the time and will not listen! We also feel that he is just a rubber stamp for The Idaho Fish Game.” more…
http://mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb/2011/01/26/idaho-sportsmen-want-commissioner-budge-ousted/
Then bullied by the ultra Conservative, Rotary Club…
http://www.journalnet.com/news/local/article_639aacda-1232-11df-87ef-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1QVefzxC6
These decisions should be made by scientists not MALLEABLE politicians who are held in contempt by those he effects.
KopperBuck on June 27 at 3:06 p.m.
When we’re talking about wolf management in the NW - yes, I will stand by that CWD is NOT the problem. If there was a massive die off due to CWD, it would have been detected long ago.
greenlibertarian on June 27 at 4:22 p.m.
Thanks for that link to the Bunch story, CougarGold.
After further research, I see his selection for the position in the first place, and for much of his tenure, has been rather “colorful”. He’s not enjoyed good relations with the main hunting sportsman groups. He really got sideways with them in the matter of the Mule Deer herds in SW which were severely depleted due to overhunting, and the hunter sportman groups took him to the woodshed over it, while his lack of knowlege on the issues was stunningly weak and in some cases completely wrong.
He is, after all, big shot attorney at a big shot firm. His arrogance comes out quite often. He also represented welfare queen ranchers grazing their cows on federal and state lands, particularly, Pleasant View Grazing allottment of 59,000 acres of DESERT in SE Idaho.
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2009/09/15/more-elk-less-cattle/
CougarGold on June 27 at 4:37 p.m.
Greenlib - this is an excerpt from a letter from sportsmen asking for the removal of Budge from the first link Lee Kinney put in his post regarding Budge:
“Randy Budge and IDFG also mislead sportsmen regarding wolves. For years IDFG were blaming elk decline on habitat in much of the northern units. The fact that places like the Lolo zone had knee high grass, and sportsmen providing harvest reports finally made the Commission and the IDFG finally admit wolves were the problem.” (emphasis added)
It would seem that one of their biggest complaints was that it took an exceedingly long time for him to admit that wolves were decimating the elk population. So yes, his arrogance played into their issue with him but not in a way that supports keeping the wolf listed under ESA, at least not in Idaho. It’s a state game management issue.
greenlibertarian on June 27 at 5:12 p.m.
Yes, I saw all that stuff, CG.
He’s also said that the if the pro-wolf conservation groups win their lawsuit, the ESA and the feds will take over again, and ban wolf hunting, but he says in that case, hunters will take the matter into their own hands and conduct illegal hunting for the wolves.
Much of the criticism of him from hunters, prior to most of this wolf brouhaha, was that F&G was decimating the herds by allowing too much hunting.
MrBloggy on June 27 at 11:07 p.m.
My spirit brother
the intense and wonderful
Idaho Gray Wolf
is about to cease protecting
man and his kind
from the diseased lunacy
of deadly elk
and will let man twitch and shriek
impaled on a murderous
elk’s antlers
Please grant him the respect
and love he desires
or reap the elk-wind