Rant of the Week: De-listing the Gray Wolf

A short bit of background: Gray wolves were reintroduced into central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park back in the early 90s. They were given “experimental non-essential” designation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the recovery states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Well, the wolves have been doing relatively well, and in 2008, the Bush administration took the critter of the Threatened and Endangered list. The state wildlife agencies of ID, WY and MT wrote management plans for the wolf. Most conservation groups think they are inadequate and allow for hunting of wolves. I’m not necessarily against very limited hunting, but I also agree these plans need some work. This issue has recently come to light because Obama’s Department of the Interior is currently looking into the possibility of reversing this and put the wolf back on the endangered species list. My position is that once adequate state management plans are in place, the wolf should be de-listed, or we risk weakening the ESA.

I've always been a big advocate of wolf reintroduction in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. As most you know, was born and raised in Salmon, Idaho, 20 miles as the crow flies from where the first gray wolves were released in the Frank Church Wilderness. When the wolf was reintroduced, recovery goals were agreed upon by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The recovery goal is 300 wolves and 30 breading pairs. This has been surpassed for a long time, and now we sit at over 1,500 wolves. Follow the law and delist the animal. I understand some people think the original recovery goals are insufficient. Certainly some science went into the development of the original recovery goals, but this is a valid debate. Additionally, this was under Bruce Babbitt’s Dept of the Interior, which had a pretty good reputation with environmental interests. However, I have little doubt that even if the recover goals were 10 times that number (3,000 wolves), environmentalists would be making the same argument that "3,000 is not enough."

Why do you think extremists like ex-representative Richard Pombo and these anti-environment politician whackos hate the Endangered Species Act and try to water it down and tear it apart? It's because of situations like this where environmental interests fight de-listing, even when species have well surpassed their recovery goals. The ESA is being used as a permanent protection measure, not a temporary measure to get species back on track, like it was intended to be. Quit moving the target. The more you abuse and take advantage of this great and important law, the more people want to eliminate it. Play by the rules and don't give them reasons to contend that we're abusing the act.