Today we received a plan by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reopening the public comment period on the 2007 proposal to remove endangered species protections from Northern Rockies wolves. This plan fails to make any substantive changes, despite a recent ruling by Federal District Judge Donald Molloy that found its previous delisting rule defective.  Molloy's ruling reinstated federal wolf protections in late July-and just three months later, the federal government is trying to strip them again without addressing the fundamental problems of wolf conservation.

For starters, wolves are not yet recovered.  The three populations have not achieved a total size of several thousand animals, which experts maintain is necessary to ensure the long-term health of the population.  Of particular concern (to us and to Judge Molloy) is the isolation of Yellowstone wolves, whose long-term health relies on genetic exchange with other wolves populations to the west and north. 

Recovery may have been set back this year too. The population numbers dipped because of high mortality of pups in Yellowstone, apparently due to disease, according to Yellowstone Park wolf expert Doug Smith.  Any delisting plan must account for the significant potential impact of disease on the population-FWS' didn't. 

Another key concern is the predator zone in Wyoming, which comprises nearly 90% of the state, where wolves can be shot on sight.  We learned the hard way that wolves wander into this zone at their peril, when a number were gunned down at elk feed grounds, the day after the delisting rule became effective in late April.  These were wolves that weren't doing anything wrong. They were just in the wrong place, Wyoming, which unfortunately for wolves, comprises the lion-share of their habitat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Although there is a current discussion among state legislators, ranchers and others about changing Wyoming's laws and removing the predator zone in Wyoming, that can not be accomplished until the state legislature convenes in January, 2009.  So why isn't the Bush administration giving Wyoming a chance to get it right and fix the problems identified in the judge's ruling?  Is it because in the administration is in a terrible rush to get wolves off the list by the time it leaves office?

The tragic thing is that with a little patience, openness to incorporating new scientific information, and a willingness to bring all parties together to solve real-world conflicts between wolves and livestock, the administration could actually get to real recovery. 

But no. 

Once again, the Bush administration invites unnecessary conflict, controversy and litigation on the recovery of an iconic species that is within our nation's reach.  After committing $27 million from taxpayers to recover an animal that has been extirpated in 95% of its former range, this administration wants to reverse the gains and jeopardize this incredible conservation success story.

I am reminded of refrain in a Bob Dylan song: "when will they ever learn?"  The answer, my friend, may be blowing in the winds in some places in the Northern Rockies, but not in Washington D.C., where these ill-conceived policies are being concocted.