Delisting Debate

Sun., Oct. 29, 2000

Staff

Endangered species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be premature to drop gray wolves from the endangered species list, opponents of the proposal said during public hearings in Spokane and Helena this month.

“They’re not fully recovered, and you should keep them under federal protection,” said Katherine Holman of the Sierra Club. “Don’t change the rules of the game before the game is over. Stick to the goals of the recovery plan.”

The federal agency is proposing changing the status of wolves from endangered to threatened in about 15 states, including northwestern Montana and the Idaho Panhandle.

Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator, said the reclassification would give the agency more flexibility in dealing with problem wolves.

As endangered species, gray wolves can’t be harmed by ranchers even if they kill livestock. Instead, ranchers must contact the Fish and Wildlife Service, which uses a variety of techniques to keep the wolves alive, if possible, but away from livestock and humans.

Reducing the wolves’ listing to threatened would place them under the same management rules as those reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park and in central Idaho. Under those guidelines, ranchers can shoot wolves if the animals are harassing or killing livestock.

Bangs said about 450 wolves live in Montana and the Yellowstone region alone, and he believes they’re no longer in danger of extinction.

A decision isn’t expected on the wolves’ status until June.

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