Wolves gut-shot last weekend

There’s no doubt about it: wolves were gut-shot over the weekend by Congress and the administration— and the courts didn’t help matters either.  On Friday night, a rider on the Continuing Resolution, a “must pass” bill needed to keep the government operating, was pushed through by Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and Representative Mike Simpson (R-ID).  The bill will legislatively delist wolves through most of the Northern Rockies region, leaving them at the mercy of the states which plan to kill hundreds of them. 

This is the first time in the history of the Endangered Species Act that a species’ status has been dictated by Congress—a body that lacks the necessary scientific background, professional judgment, and experience needed to recover imperiled species.  A rider floated by Senators Tester and Simpson earlier in this Congress rolled back protections for wolves in Idaho, Montana, and parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington.  Under a similar plan, Idaho and Montana wolves would be managed under state plans, which could allow the killing of as many as roughly 900 wolves, down to a minimum of about 100-150 wolves per state.  That’s a lot of dead wolves, and a major reversal of the progress made to date to recover a top predator in a landscape where humans had eliminated them.  Only Wyoming wolves would remain protected, until a plan acceptable to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been adopted.

Adding insult to injury, our efforts to stave off legislative action by settling our lawsuit with the Department of Interior failed.  This settlement would have put science-based standards in place to ensure recovery of wolves in the region—a big step in the right direction towards the long term viability of wolves.  This past Saturday, however, Federal District Judge Molloy rejected the settlement agreement—just after Congress inserted the wolf delisting rider in the budget deal. 

I have thought a lot about this terrible situation, especially in the context of one of the last great congressional attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act, in 1994, when the Newt Gingrich (R-GA) Congress made a serious run at the ESA. I was involved in endangered species work back then in the Northern Rockies, and we had a rough ride, but emerged victorious.  ESA opponents failed because of strong pro-ESA leadership in Congress and the administration—and because of major, diverse grassroots support for the ESA, including in states like Montana.  It was telling that one key opponent of the ESA, Richard Pombo (R-CA) got dumped in his reelection bid, due in significant measure, to his over-the-top hostility towards the ESA.  But now, despite the fact that polls show that the public still strongly supports protecting endangered species—and not throwing any off the Ark—Congress has gone south.  Furthermore, there is a real danger that the door is now swinging open to attacks on a host of other imperiled species. 

It is time for all of us who care about our irreplaceable wildlife legacy to stand up, get motivated, and be counted.  We must do everything we can to convey our deep disappointment with those congressmen who pushed the wolf rider, and in doing so, acted out of step with the sentiment of the majority of the American public.  We must be so forceful that we will prevent a similar disaster from ever happening again.

It is particularly disturbing that wolves were delisted in a well-hidden “rider”, which precluded the issue from being debated openly and fairly.  Even more outrageous is the fact that we still don’t know the exact language of the bill that Congress passed.  This is antithetical to how a functioning democracy should work: with transparency, openness, integrity, and responsiveness to the views of the public. 

While we, the American public, need to fix how our democracy functions, we at NRDC need to immediately focus on the ground—here in Montana, Idaho and elsewhere in the region —to stop the hemorrhaging, and hold the states accountable for maintaining wolves on the landscape.  

I and others at NRDC will be increasing our efforts to promote non-lethal coexistent practices for livestock producers in wolf country, since livestock conflicts are the major reason that wolves die.  There is much that can and must be learned from the many ranchers in the region who are coexisting with wolves, most quietly and without fanfare.  We need to synthesize these lessons and make sure that the states, Wildlife Services and other agencies involved in wolf management are working with the most effective toolchest to prevent livestock conflicts and depredations.

But there’s no two ways about it: last week was a disastrous one for wolves—a week that demonstrated how dysfunctional our democratic system has become.

Comments