By JOHN CRAMER of the Missoulian

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to stop the federal government from giving states more leeway to kill protected gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula, challenges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision Thursday to loosen restrictions on when wolves could be killed to protect game herds, pack animals and dogs in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

Environmentalists called the decision an invitation to "wholesale slaughter" of wolves, but federal officials called it a minor revision before next month's expected removal of wolves from the endangered species list.

The revised rule, which would go into effect only if the delisting is held up in court, involves wolves in the Yellowstone National Park area and in central Idaho, where they were reintroduced in the mid-1990s as "nonessential, experimental" populations.

The new rule does not affect wolves in northwest Montana, where they naturally recolonized from Canada in the early 1980s.

Ed Bangs, wolf coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the rule was revised to give states more flexibility to kill a relatively small number of wolves while an expected legal battle plays out after wolves are delisted next month.

Wyoming and Idaho have proposed to kill several dozen wolves under the revised rule. Montana has not proposed to kill any under the new rule.

The rule also was revised in order for Wyoming's wolf management plan to be accepted and the delisting to move forward, Bangs said.

"This rule has got tons of safeguards and it's based on solid science," he said.

Environmental groups said all but 600 - 200 each in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana - of the region's 1,500 wolves could be killed under the new rule.

"This is a giant step backward. There is absolutely no reason to begin a wholesale slaughter of the region's wolves," said Suzanne Stone, a wolf conservation specialist for Defenders of Wildlife, one of seven environmental groups that filed an injunction to block the rule.

Federal officials want to allow state wildlife and tribal agencies the opportunity to kill wolves that have a major impact on elk, deer and other ungulates, whose populations are at or above state management goals in most of the Northern Rockies.

The previous rule, which federal officials decided was unattainable, required states to show that wolves were the primary cause of a decline in ungulate populations.

Federal officials determined wolves alone were not likely to be the primary cause for reducing ungulate populations, which also are influenced by other predators, habitat, hunting, weather and other factors.

Under the revised rule, states and tribes that want to kill wolves must submit proposals for scientific and public review.

The proposals must show wolves are a major cause for declining ungulate numbers, that efforts are being made to address other major causes for the ungulate decline and that the state's wolf population would not drop below 200.

Wolves were officially recovered in the northern Rockies by 2002, when their population reached at least 300 across the entire region. Since then, the region's wolf population has grown to an estimated 1,545.

Federal officials said wolves' rapid reproduction, abundant prey and influx from other packs would keep wolf populations at high levels.

Montana, Wyoming and Idaho would take over management of wolves within their borders if next month's delisting goes forward. The states' plans include proposed hunting seasons on wolves.

Federal regulations require each state to maintain a minimum of 100 wolves, including 10 breeding pairs.

The states' management plans would curtail hunting when their total population drops below 450. Federal protection would resume if their numbers drop below 300.

Environmental groups say the region can support 2,000 to 3,000 wolves in a "meta-population" that freely intermingles.

Federal officials said such intermingling already happens and that wolves now occupy most suitable habitat in the northern Rockies.

Earthjustice is representing Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and Friends of the Clearwater in the lawsuit.

http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/29/news/local/news04.txt

Opinion by a local bowhunder in support of delisting (Adobe pdf)