For Immediate Release
Contact: David Gaillard, Predator Conservation Alliance, (406) 587-3389
Gary Macfarlane, Friends of the Clearwater, (208) 882-9755
July 11, 2000
Federal Wolf Proposal is Premature; Threatens Wolf Recovery Across the West
Citing increased wolf populations in the upper Great Lakes and the northern Rockies, The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) today proposed to reclassify wolves currently listed as "endangered" to "threatened" in some portions of the country, and in doing so not actively pursue wolf recovery in other portions of the United States. However, two regional conservation organizations in Montana and Idaho say that while this may sound great on paper, what it means on the ground is of real concern for wolves and wolf recovery.
"With this proposal, the Fish and Wildlife Service is claiming success too early in the northern Rockies, and limiting wolf recovery in many other parts of the west," said David Gaillard of the Bozeman-based Predator Conservation Alliance.
Predator Conservation Alliance and Friends of the Clearwater say that the FWS has not met its own biological criteria for determining when wolves can be "downlisted" in the northern Rockies, and the FWS is being premature in reducing protections for wolves. The groups also point out that is it unfair to the citizens of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and northern portions of Arizona and New Mexico for the federal agency to say wolves are recovered across the west because wolves in Idaho, western Montana and northwestern Wyoming are approaching its northern Rockies recovery targets.
Gaillard said, "The Fish and Wildlife Service is moving the goalposts of success before true recovery has been met. With all of the time and money we have spent to recover the wolf in the northern Rockies, it's scary to think the agency is willing to risk real recovery now just to claim early victory."
The Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Plan says that wolves in the region can be downlisted when two of the three populations have had ten breeding pairs for three consecutive years. This has not yet occurred, and in northwest Montana, where wolves from Canada established territory on their own, only 5 breeding pairs have existed for the past three consecutive years.
Gaillard also said, "Predator Conservation Alliance has recommended all along that the Fish and Wildlife Service take enough time to see the goals of its recovery plan met before re-thinking wolf management in the northern Rockies. Lessening wolf protections now, especially in places where they are needed as much as northwest Montana, will jeopardize extremely popular and very expensive recovery successes that have occurred during the past decade".
Reduction in wolf protections also clears the way for states to eventually take over management of wolves. Gary Macfarlane of Moscow, Idaho-based Friends of the Clearwater said, "Idaho is already writing predator management rules with population targets that look more like a floor than a ceiling. If the states are made responsible for wolf management, Idaho wolf numbers will be kept just barely above extinction levels."
In reference to the FWS's proposal to include states outside the northern Rockies as part of a new "western states" wolf population, PCA Executive Director Tom Skeele stated, "The Northern Rockies Gray Wolf Recovery Plan was never intended to be the 'Western States Recovery Plan." This proposal will effectively close the door on wolf recovery in the Southern Rockies, Cascades, and parts of the Southwest. That's unfair not only to the wolf but to people who want wolves back on the ground where they belong".
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