Lawmakers keep aim on wolves

Montana’s congressional delegation is

keeping the federally-protected gray wolf in its crosshairs.

Sen. Jon Tester fired off a letter to

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar asking for regulated hunting

of wolves to control numbers. Meanwhile, Rep. Denny Rehberg

introduced two bills that would remove wolves from Endangered

Species Act protection.

Tester said in a recent phone interview

that it’s a big issue among Montanans.

“We hear a lot of different issues but

it’s a concern to me because we visited with a number of folks on

it,” Tester, who chairs the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, told

The Western News. “It’s a concern and a problem that needs to get

fixed.”

The senator’s letter to Salazar

requested the reinstatement of a gray wolf conservation hunt in

Montana.

“A regulated hunt of wolves is well

within the scope of the Endangered Species Act and will enhance the

management of wolves in the state and throughout the region,”

Tester wrote to Salazar. “It will reduce actual and perceived

pressure from this species on Montana’s ecosystem and agricultural

economy while honoring our state’s hunting heritage.”

Tester said he wanted Salazar to know

the economic impact of the wolf situation in Montana. The senator

said he’s had people tell him that something was needed to simply

send a message.

“You’ve got people who are having some

economic difficulty because of these dog-gone things,” Tester said.

“We’re going to work on getting things done. That’s why I sent a

letter off to secretary Salazar to say this is where we were.”

Tester told Salazar that the denial of

a conservation hunt has severely limited the state’s ability to

resolve the issue.

“Allowing a regulated hunt will expand

the state’s management options for this predator and restore

balance to the system,” he wrote. “This action will protect elk and

livestock while not jeopardizing the gray wolf recovery.”

Rehberg’s legislation seeks to

completely remove federal management of wolves. In one bill –

co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Rep. Raul Labrador

(R-Idaho) – wolves would be completely removed from federal

protection with management authority returning to Montana and

Idaho.

The other bill would remove gray wolves

from the Endangered Species Act anywhere in the United States.

Rehberg said the issue has seen bipartisan support.

“The gray wolf isn’t endangered, which

is why Republicans and Democrats alike are joining forces to end

the misuse of the Endangered Species Act to advance extremist

policy agendas,” said Rehberg, a rancher from Billings. “I heard

from thousands of Montanans, and folks get it. They know that

states are better at managing our own local wildlife than the

federal government thousands of miles away.”

On Aug. 5, U.S. District Judge Donald

Molloy reinstated protection for gray wolves in Montana and Idaho.

Wolves were never delisted in Wyoming.

“The northern Rocky DPS (distinct

population segment) must be listed, or delisted, as a distinct

population and protected accordingly,” Molloy wrote in his

ruling.

As such, Molloy’s ruling stated that

the entire Montana-Idaho-Wyoming region cannot have separate

protections for the same wolf population in each state.

“Unless there’s a darn good reason –

and there’s not – the federal government has no business getting

involved,” Rehberg said. “Years of research, dedicated efforts by

landowners and local officials, and the expert opinions of

on-the-ground wildlife managers have been given a back seat to

profit-motivated environmental groups. We need to end this abuse

and solve an issue that should have been put to rest years

ago.”

Rehberg said wolf populations have far

surpassed even the revised recovery goals established by the

Endangered Species Act – 30 breeding pairs and 300 wolves for eight

consecutive years. But he added that a few well-funded special

interest groups have used dirty tricks to keep the gray wolf listed

as endangered.

“Increasing numbers of wolves in Idaho

show that protection under the endangered species act is no longer

needed,” Labrador said. “The Endangered Species Act is a tool to

recover a species, not a program for infinite and never-ending

federal oversight. The wolves are thriving, the science is

definitive and the time has come to delist the gray wolf

permanently.”

Simpson said a viable long-term

solution is needed to return authority to manage wolves to the

respective states.

“This input is reflected in these

bills, and I look forward to working with Congressmen Rehberg and

Labrador to move forward on this issue by seeing this bill signed

into law,” he said.

Rehberg’s second bill – which is just

one page in length – states that Endangered Species Act shall not

apply to gray wolves across the board. Ten Republicans and five

Democrats were listed as co-sponsors.

“The current impasse is a great

frustration to sportsmen and economically damaging to ranchers in

my state and it must be resolved,” Tester told Salazar. “The first

step in expanding state discretion is granting a conservation hunt

of gray wolves to restore the full range of tools to manage this

species.”