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Lawsuit Seeks to Restore Federal Protection to Gray Wolves in Northern Rockies
Contact: Nicole Rosmarino (505) 699-7404

Missoula, MT—May5. Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friendsof the Clearwater, and WildEarth Guardians today filed suit in federal court inMontana against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for delisting wolves inMontana, Idaho, and portions of Utah, Washington, and Oregon. The Servicepublished the delisting rule today in compliance with a Congressional budgetrider passed on April 15.

“We will notallow the fate of endangered species to be determined by politicians servingspecial interests. These decisions must be based on science, not politics,” statedMichael Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies.“Congress has never before delisted species from the Endangered Species list.There is a well-established legal process that applies to every other species.Congress simply should not get into the business of making decisions over whichof our nation’s imperiled animals and plants will and will not get protection.”

The groupscharge in their complaint that the delisting rider violates the U.S.Constitution, as it specifically repeals a judicial decision. While Congresshas the right to make and amend laws, the wolf delisting rider (Section 1713 ofthe budget law, HR 1473, PL 112-10) does not amend the Endangered Species Act. Rather,it orders the reinstatement of the 2009 wolf delisting rule.

“The rider goesagainst a bedrock principle of our democracy: checks and balances betweenbranches of government,” stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians.“Legislators can’t pick off specific court decisions they don’t like. That’snot fair for the wolf, and it’s certainly not good for our democracy.”

The 2009 ruledelisted wolves in the Northern Rockies, with the exception of Wyoming.Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and otherorganizations challenged that rule on the basis that it violated the EndangeredSpecies Act by carving out areas in which wolf protection would be revoked,along state lines. In August 2010, Montana Federal Judge Donald Molloydetermined that the 2009 rule was illegal and struck down the 2007 InteriorSolicitor’s legal memo on which it was based.

The currentInterior Solicitor, Hilary Tompkins, herself revoked the illegal 2007 memoyesterday, but the withdrawal of the illegal memo came too late for wolves inthe Northern Rockies. Those wolves are now facing drastic policies at the statelevel. Montana announced earlier this week that it will likely allow up to 220of the 566 wolves in the state to be killed this year. In late April, Idahopassed a law declaring a gray wolf “disaster emergency” that gives the governorbroad discretion to allow wolf killing statewide. Idaho officials reportedlystated to the Lewiston Morning Tribuneearlier this week that aerial gunning of wolves in the Lolo Elk Management Zonewill begin “‘with all due haste’” once the delisting rule is issued. TheLolo killing plan targets wolves for killing their native prey, elk, as does asimilar plan in the West Fork area of the Bitterroot National Forest inMontana.

“We are doingall we can to hold back the tide of wolf-killing in Montana, Idaho, andelsewhere in the Northern Rockies,” said Gary Macfarlane of Friends of the Clearwater.“This ecologically important species is being unfairly targeted out ofignorance and intolerance and now lacks a federal shield from killing.”

There has been widespread concern overthe use of the budget bill to tack on policy riders. Wrote Oregon Governor JohnKitzhaber in an April 18, 2011 letter to President Obama, “A six-month budget resolution negotiated through backroom discussionsis clearly the wrong vehicle to make permanent changes to significant publicpolicy. For nearly 40 years, the Endangered Species Act has assured decisionsabout our nation’s natural heritage are driven by science, fish and wildlifeprofessionals, and public input. Removing protection for an endangered speciesby congressional mandate, much less through a budget bill, stands inunprecedented contrast to this history. This action erodes the integrity of theESA, excludes important public involvement, and usurps the agency structure,established based on a balancing of executive and legislative branch power,that exists to undertake important decisions affecting America’s wildlife.”

“We’re back in court for two reasons,”concluded Garrity. “First and foremost,it’s to continue to protect wolves fromindiscriminate slaughter. Second,someone has to stand up when the basictenets of our government are under attack by unscrupulous politicians and thatwould be the Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, and WildEarth Guardians.”