Gray wolf back on protect list in Mont. and Idaho, to ranchers and hunters ire
By Kari Lydersen
Special to The Washington Post
The gray wolf will be protected again in Montana and Idaho, much to the ire of ranchers and hunters who say the animals kill too much livestock and game.
A federal judge ruled last week to list gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act, saying that the Northern Rockies wolves must all be treated as a single population. In other words, if the animals are considered endangered in one state, they must be listed as endangered throughout the region.
Opponents of the listing are directing their anger at Wyoming.
That's because Wyoming law allows the unregulated hunting of wolves throughout most of the state if they are taken off the endangered list. So while the federal government delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho last year after those states agreed to management plans that included controlled wolf hunts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) kept Wyoming wolves on the endangered list..............
| A federal judge last week ordered endangered species protection reinstated for the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies region. |
| Photo Credit: Associated Press |
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3 comments:
Whereas down here in New Mexico, the Mexican gray wolf was completely wiped out wiped out by 1930, and we've gradually managed to reintroduce it.
Now the Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing its status, to see if it qualifies as for a special management plan. So we're doing pretty well down here.
(The fact that it's the mascot of the University of New Mexico might help it's status a little, I guess...)
Go Lobos.
wolves (and ravens) happen to be my totem animals so they're extra special to me.
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