by Laura Zuckerman, Reuters
SALMON, Idaho, Aug 3 (Reuters) – A federal judge refused on Wednesday to overturn an unprecedented act of Congress that removed some 1,500 wolves in Montana and Idaho from the U.S. endangered species list.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy sided against environmentalists who argued Congress exceeded its authority when it passed legislation in April to lift federal wolf protections, giving the two states largely unfettered control over the animals.
The decision by Molloy allows Montana and Idaho to carry on with plans to open both states to extensive hunting of the iconic animals as a way of reducing their numbers to levels they see as better balanced with human interests.
Wyoming on Wednesday also moved a step closer to joining Montana and Idaho in seeing its 300-plus wolves removed from Endangered Species Act safeguards.
“It looks like there will be a lot of wolf killing now,” said Michael Garrity, director of WildEarth Guardians, a Montana-based conservation group. “If we do appeal the ruling, I hope we can get the case resolved in favor of wolves before the vast majority are killed in the Northern Rockies.”
Wolves have been at the center of a bitter debate since they were reintroduced to the region in the mid-1990s over the objections of ranchers and commercial outfitters, who said the animals prey on cattle and compete with hunters for elk.
Environmentalists insist the impact of wolves on big game and livestock have been overstated, and that efforts to roll back Endangered Species Act protections would push recovering wolf populations back to the brink.
After Molloy twice rejected a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to delist wolves in Montana and Idaho but leave them protected in Wyoming, Congress intervened to reverse him.
Lawmakers ended up embracing the delisting plan in the “rider” to a budget bill that President Barack Obama signed into law in April. It marked the first time in the decades-long history of the Endangered Species Act that an animal was delisted by legislation rather than by scientific review.
JUDGE SAYS HANDS TIED
Challenging the measure, conservation groups said Congress lacked the power to simply delist an animal without amending the underlying law, or to bar judicial review of a de-listing, as the legislation sought to do.
But Molloy, based in Missoula, Montana, ruled that Congress “can involve itself in pending litigation under limited circumstances,” and he agreed with government lawyers who said Congress could amend a law like the Endangered Species Act through exemption.
In an 18-page opinion, Molloy said deciding the fate of imperiled animals through budget “riders” showed “a disrespect for the fundamental idea of the rule of law.”
However, the judge said his hands were tied by higher-court decisions giving Congress the authority to act in such a manner.
Jay Tutchton, attorney for several groups challenging the delisting, said they would review their legal options.
Molloy sided with environmentalists last August when he struck down a wolf delisting implemented in 2009 by the Fish and Wildlife Service. He ruled then that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by treating Montana and Idaho wolves differently from those in Wyoming. Molloy held that they all had to be managed together as a single population.
Molloy rejected the delisting plan again in April when it was presented as a negotiated settlement between the federal government and 10 conservation groups. Several other environmental organizations continued to oppose it.
Days later, Congress voted to override Molloy’s decision to put the delisting into effect.
As a result, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved a plan last week that permits the state to eliminate as many as 850 of its estimated 1,000 wolves through a combination of hunting and trapping that would be allowed in most of the state for most of the year, starting this month.
In Montana, wildlife managers set a statewide quota of 220 wolves — out of an estimated population of 566 — for wolf hunts that will generally run from September to November.
And under a deal reached on Wednesday with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming’s wolves will also be removed from the endangered species list, and opened up to hunting.
That plan, still subject to approval by the state legislature, would allow Wyoming to cut its wolf population by more than half, to no fewer than 150 statewide.
