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The long road to victory for wolves

July 19, 2008

Posted by Louisa Willcox in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places

Tags:

endangeredspeciesact, ESA, greaterrockies, greateryellowstone, wildlife, wolf, wolfdelisting, wolves, yellowstone, yellowstonenationalpark

The phone rang off the hook last night. Friends, colleagues, family, my old boss – calls of congratulations, celebration for wolves and the magnificent ecosystems they represent.   Long live wolves, long live the Wild, long live the Honorable Judge Molloy!

It has been a long seven weeks since the preliminary injunction hearing in federal court in Missoula, when my husband Doug Honnold and two other Earthjustice attorneys representing NRDC and other conservation groups faced off with 20 attorneys representing the federal government, NRA, Safari Club, livestock organizations and the 3 states – interests united around the common goal of killing lots of wolves.  In fact, there were so many attorneys on the other side, that some of them had to sit in the jury box.  A Goliath of wolf opponents vs. our Davids: Doug, Jenny Harbine, and Tim Preso. 

The courtroom was packed that day.  In the hushed tense moment awaiting the arrival of the Judge, Doug leaned back in his chair and whispered (loud enough that we could hear in the front row) to Ed Bangs, the US Fish and Wildlife Service gray wolf coordinator: “Hey Ed, do you think you have enough backup?”  Laughing, Ed said: “I sure hope so.”  (As it turned out, adequate backup was not their problem: scientifically unjustified and inadequate wolf plans were.) 

Judge Molloy, an imposing figure and commanding presence, doesn’t look like the kind of guy who camps out in Yellowstone to look for wolves.  But he asked all the right questions, grilling Wyoming about the nature of the predator zone, remarking that FWS had “flip flopped” in its decision to approve Wyoming’s plan after previously rejecting it. (He again used the word “flip flop” in yesterday’s ruling).  Then he said he would rule “soon.” 

Soon, it turned out, meant seven weeks.  Seven long weeks, during which time, about 40 wolves were killed in the region, and Montana and Wyoming moved forward to set up hunting seasons.  Reporters kept calling, friends, others.  We didn’t know anything – was Molloy sick, did he have a death in the family?  We knew nothing and had nothing to say.  Only: “Judge Molloy said he was going to rule soon.” 

Doug didn’t want to socialize, even with close friends, because he didn’t want to talk about it.  He considered hanging a sign around his neck saying: “Don’t Ask.” 

Meanwhile, I didn’t want to write much about this – some kind of weird fear that it might jinx the decision. So, I worked on a project with our summer interns, who are talking to Yellowstone park visitors about wolves, and circulating petitions urging the government to protect and relist the Northern Rockies gray wolf population.  I buried myself in other work on bears and whitebark pine.  I took a few days off, and began working with a Russian fairy tale in which the wolf was the heroic figure.  Indeed, so much of the problem facing wolves is rooted in the myths we tell about them -- and Little Red Riding Hood is one of the worst offenders. 

And then at last Judge Molloy came through, saving wolves for now, while saying in his introduction: “This case, like a cloud larger than a man’s hand, will hang over the states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming until there has been a final determination of the complex issues presented.” 

That is undoubtedly true, but today, there is not a cloud in the sky, and Doug and I are going hiking.

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