[MCN] 5 Groups File Legal Petition Seeking Extension of Federal Monitoring for Northern Rockies Wolves

[Matthew Koehler]

For Immediate Release, January 5, 2016

Contacts:

Andrea Santarsiere, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 854-7748
Ken Cole, Western Watersheds Project, (208) 429-1679 Gary Macfarlane,
Friends of the Clearwater, (208) 882-9755
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (314) 482-3746
Matthew Koehler, WildWest Institute, (406) 396-0321

*Legal Petition Seeks Extension of Federal Monitoring for Northern Rockies
Wolves*

*New Study: Hunting Likely Spurring Harmful Declines in Northern Rocky
Wolves*


VICTOR, Idaho — Five conservation groups filed a petition
(*http://bit.ly/1ZMpoHi
<http://bit.ly/1ZMpoHi>*) today requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service continue monitoring northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves for another
five years. The existing monitoring program, which is required by the
Endangered Species Act after protections are removed for a species, is set
to expire in May. The monitoring is crucial to ensure that the wolf
population doesn’t slip to levels at which Endangered Species Act
protections are again needed.

The groups based today’s request in part on a new study in the journal
Science that found the Fish and Wildlife Service and states of Montana and
Idaho have underestimated the impacts and risks of aggressive hunting
policies for gray wolves instituted since protections were lifted. Since
federal safeguards were first stripped in 2009, more than 2,300 wolves have
been killed by hunters or trappers in the two states.

“This research confirms what many scientists have been saying all along,”
said Andrea Santarsiere, staff attorney at the Center for Biological
Diversity. “Aggressive hunting of wolves is harming the gray wolf
population in the northern Rockies. Left unchecked, the numbers will
continue to decline — a sad fact for an animal that we fought so hard to
bring back from the brink of extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
clearly needs to continue to keep an eye on this situation.”

In first removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in
2009, the Fish and Wildlife Service said that the required post-delisting
monitoring period would be extended for an additional five years if any one
of three criteria are met. One criterion requires an extension if a
significant change in state law or management would significantly increase
threats to the wolf population. Both Idaho and Montana have repeatedly
increased hunting and trapping quotas in an effort to substantially reduce
wolf populations, which according to the new study are almost certainly
resulting in population declines.

“Antagonism towards wolves is one of the main threats that put them on the
endangered species list in the first place. This has hardly changed, and
the states have further demonstrated their continued aggression towards
wolves by increasing killing efforts and liberalizing hunting and trapping
of wolves” said Ken Cole, Idaho director for Western Watersheds Project.
 “The Fish and Wildlife Service should extend their oversight of wolf
management by the states to ensure stable and viable wolf populations”

“As a backcountry elk and deer hunter myself, I find it appalling that in
Montana hunters and trappers can legally kill up to five wolves annually,
including deep within our Wilderness areas,” said Matthew Koehler, director
of the Montana-based WildWest Institute. “Essentially this allows hunters
or trappers to legally wipe out an entire wolf pack.”

“Furthermore, since politicians – including Montana Senator Jon Tester –
removed ESA protections for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho via a rider
attached to an unrelated spending bill, we’re seen an increase in unethical
and disgusting wolf-killing contests in the region,” said Koehler.

“Given these circumstances, requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
continue monitoring northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves for another five
years is the right thing to do scientifically, as well as ethically, to
ensure that wolves are not once again hunted and trapped to the brink of
extinction,” explained Koehler. “I call on all my fellow hunters who claim
to support the ‘North American Wildlife Conservation Model’ to support more
this legal petition.”

Idaho has been especially aggressive in trying to reduce the wolf
population. In 2014 the Idaho Legislature created the Idaho Wolf Control
Board, allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars to killing wolves. Idaho
has also contracted with the federal Wildlife Services to hunt, trap and
aerially gun down wolves in the Lolo Zone and hired a professional trapper
to eliminate two wolf packs in the Frank-Church-River-of-No Return
Wilderness last winter. The agency has also turned a blind eye to an annual
predator derby contest, in which participants win cash and prizes for
killing wolves and coyotes, despite an agency policy condemning predator
hunting contests as unethical.

“Idaho has been waging a war against wolves in the Lochsa and North Fork
Clearwater basins, one of the wildest areas in the lower 48 states,” said
Gary MacFarlane, ecosystem defense director of Friends of the Clearwater.
“Further monitoring of this ill-advised program is needed.”

“The primary threat to wolves is active eradication efforts occurring
throughout the Rocky Mountain distinct population segment,” said Nick Cady,
legal director of Cascadia Wildlands.  “Continued monitoring of this
still-fragile population is without question necessary and critical to the
wolf’s recovery in the United States.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service has argued that the wolf population has
stayed relatively constant despite hunting, but according to the new study
this conclusion is questionable. Among other problems, Montana has changed
its counting methodology after delisting, and Idaho continues to rely on a
convoluted mathematical equation that is likely to overestimate the wolf
population, making it difficult to accurately determine population trends.

“Idaho and Montana aren’t safe places for wolves right now,” Santarsiere
said. “This is no time for the Fish and Wildlife Service to walk away from
its duty to ensure this population survives and thrives. We know these
wolves have been hammered by hunting and aggressive state policies and
still need help.”

COPY of the LEGAL PETITION: http://bit.ly/1ZMpoHi # # #
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