Groups sue U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for delisting wolves

A coalition of conservation and animal rights groups is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for refusing to restore Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

In February, the federal agency rejected a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Friends of the Clearwater, Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment and six other groups asking for wolves to be listed as threatened.

They contend federal wildlife officials ignored science that indicates liberal wolf hunting regulations and laws in the three states threaten the long-term genetic diversity of the animals. They also say healthy and abundant wolf populations in the Northern Rockies are critical to supporting wolf recovery in other Western states via migration of animals seeking new territory.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service committed to ‘immediately pursue’ emergency Endangered Species Act listing of wolves if any state allowed unlimited and unregulated killing of wolves, which Idaho has done since July 1, 2021,” Suzanne Asha Stone, director of the Idaho-based International Wildlife Coexistence Network, said in a news release.

“The Service has failed to honor its delisting plan just as the state of Idaho has failed to manage wolves ‘like mountain lions and black bears’ as they publicly swore to do before wolf delisting. Aerial gunning of animals, killing pups for bounties, and widespread traps and deadly snares have no place in responsible wildlife management today.”

Gray wolves were reintroduced to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s. The animals flourished and their numbers quickly outpaced reintroduction goals for a population of at least 100 wolves in each of the three states. Idaho alone had more than 1,500 wolves.

But attempts by the Fish and Wildlife Service to remove them from protected status were blocked by court rulings. In 2009, Republican Congressman Mike Simpson of Idaho and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., authored and passed legislation that delisted the animals and returned their management to state wildlife agencies.

Since that time, the states have increasingly loosened hunting and trapping regulations in a stated effort to reduce wolf populations. In 2021 the legislatures of both states upped the ante. Idaho did away with wolf hunting bag limits, allowed wolf hunting and trapping year round on private land and allowed the state to hire wolf killing contractors.

Both Idaho and Montana support payments that sometimes top $1,000 per wolf to trappers. The money is classified as reimbursement for expenses because it supports the states’ goals to reduce wolf population.

At last count, Idaho had an estimated wolf population of about 1,300 and a wolf population objective of 500. However, the groups contend the method Idaho uses to monitor wolves inflates the population.

The lawsuit filed in Missoula (Mont.) District Court on Monday asks that the Fish and Wildlife Service be mandated to reconsider its decision.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.