Secretary upholds delisting gray wolves in parts of the West, including Oregon

[depakid]

Source: The Oregonian


The gray wolf today was removed from the list of threatened and endangered species in parts of the West, including Oregon.
-------------

Saying the gray wolf has successfully recovered in parts of the West, including Oregon, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today affirmed a federal decision to remove them from the list of threatened and endangered species. Conservationists quickly decried Salazar's action as premature and misguided. The decision covers gray wolf populations in the western Great Lakes, Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. Wolves will remain a protected species in Wyoming, where current state law and wolf management plans do not offer sufficient protection for the existing wolves.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its decision to remove the wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species in January, but President Barack Obama froze the last minute Bush administration act for review. Salazar lifted the freeze this morning. "The recovery of the gray wolf throughout significant portions of its historic range is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act," Salazar said. "When it was listed as endangered in 1974, the wolf had almost disappeared from the continental United States. Today, we have more than 5,500 wolves, including more than 1,600 in the Rockies."

Steve Pedery, conservation director of Oregon Wild, said the action threatened the return of wolves to Oregon and the future of "the icon of American wilderness." "Misguided wildlife management policies drove wolves in Oregon to extinction over 50 years ago," Pedery said.

"True recovery of gray wolves in Oregon will depend on healthy wolf populations existing in neighboring states. "Unfortunately, Secretary Salazar's decision to reinstate the Bush wolf policy will put these animals back in the crosshairs in Idaho, Wyoming and elsewhere in the West, and endanger recovery in Oregon."



Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/03/saying_the_gray_wolf_has.html

[villager]

1. Salazar the rancher, showing his true stripes...

n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

2. No! I will continue to fight this.

[Mojorabbit]

21. I wrote an email

on the white house website about this earlier today.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

3. It's only been a few years

since gray wolves returned to Oregon. I don't know how they could logically determine that it's time to take them off the list.

[Robb]

10. From the article:

The minimum recovery goal for the region is at least 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves for at least three consecutive years. That goal was achieved in 2002 and has been exceeded each year since.

There are currently about 95 breeding pairs and 1,600 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

....

The service will monitor the delisted wolf populations for at least five years to ensure their recovery continues. At that time, the service could decide to relist the wolves, continue monitoring or end its monitoring.

Wolves in other parts of the 48 states remain endangered and are not affected by today's action.

:shrug:

[babylonsister]

17. Those silly facts just get in the way! nt

[XemaSab]

23. They may still be state listed

:shrug:

[Metta]

4. Sigh, another DINO with his manhood in the pockets of yahoos.

It was too good to last. Salazar's a bad choice.

[villager]

5. You don't put a rancher in interior -- they're on the side of cows

not wildlife

[Metta]

8. Another bad move by Obama. He's not getting the best advice.

Mayber Salazar will move on, to spend more time with his family soon.

[autorank]

6. That's what we get with a Republican as Secretary of the Interior

Oh, wait, he's a Democrat, right?

[villager]

9. not that you can tell the difference, on this issue...

but then, wildlife and wilderness is usually sold out by both parties...

[autorank]

22. They're just chattel

That's for sure. We can get ready for a lot more of these decisions, I'm afraid. You'd think he'd
make a couple of pro environment decisions just to lull us into a sense that he's "changed." But
we're so unimportant to them, they don't even smile while they're screwing us.

[nyc 4 Biden]

7. BOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the hell! Salazar is wrong for continuing Shrub's war on the wolves.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. Lousy move

Salazar is a rancher. A fox as Secratary of the Henhouse.

[SpartanDem]

12. Isn't this a good thing?

I thought it's normal for to species to been taken off when they reach their target numbers. Is there something that I'm missing here?

[Big Blue Marble]

13. Yes you are missing something big time here.

This is not about science; this about the cattle industry and the hunting industry.

"Idaho and Montana already have crafted plans for public hunts to keep wolf populations in check.
There are no immediate plans for hunts in the western Great Lakes, which has nearly 4,000 wolves.

Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter on Friday repeated his desire to get the first available wolf hunting tag in the state
so he can try to shoot one of the animals. "The fish and game population is really counting on a robust population
of trophy animals to maintain that part of our economy," he said."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GRAY_WOLF_ENDANGERED?SITE=NYSAR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Link

[villager]

14. it's *always* about livestock and hunting....

...and never about wildlife...

I'm with Muir, when he said "I'm on the side of the bears..."

[Big Blue Marble]

16. Me too.

These animals belong to all of us whether we live in these states or not. These animals mostly live on public lands, our public lands.
We are responsible to protect them, to stewart them. Once again their interests and their lives are violated because
they stand in the way of the few, the entitled. It is sad that this administration, our administration that we fought so hard to
put in place now supports this entitlement.

[XemaSab]

24. You're correct

The goal has always been to delist the wolf.

[natrat]

15. didnt take salazar long to confirm what a whore he is

[DKRC]

18. Received a mailing from the Natural Resources Defense Council

NRDC today about fighting this decision. I was going to donate anyway, but this makes it more important in my mind. Hunts for these wolves kill more than just the adults ~ the pups die alone in the dens.

:grr:

[depakid]

19. Defenders of Wildlife is also a major player in this situation

http://www.defenders.org/

Their statement:

“Today is a truly disappointing day for Americans who care deeply about the Northern Rockies wolf population and for the integrity of the Endangered Species Act. We are outraged and disappointed that Secretary Salazar has chosen to push the same, terrible Bush administration plan for wolf delisting just six weeks into President Obama’s administration.

“We all expected more from the Obama administration, but Defenders of Wildlife will now move to sue Secretary Salazar as quickly as possible.

“Just three days ago, we were thrilled when President Obama stood before employees of the Department of the Interior, with Secretary Salazar at his side, and vowed to ‘help restore the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act.’ Yet today, Secretary Salazar announced that he is adopting a rule that is just as flawed now as it was when the Bush administration issued this appalling plan. Americans voted for change last November. Today Secretary Salazar gave us more of the same discredited approach to conservation followed by the Bush administration for the past eight years.

“All the reasons why this plan was a bad idea when the Bush administration proposed it still stand today. If this rule is allowed to stand, nearly two-thirds of the wolves in the Northern Rockies could be killed. This plan would undermine the goal of ensuring a healthy, sustainable wolf population in the region. Secretary Salazar’s terrible decision leaves us no choice. We will stand up for wolves and endangered species conservation by moving immediately to challenge this delisting in court.”

[Tim01]

20. Ok, will somebody please tell me why you are all upset.

Is it that you think there is something wrong with the numbers? The numbers are not accurate, or the numbers were set badly in the first place.
Or is it you don't want the wolves hunted even if the population is strong for the environment they are in?

Honest question.

[XemaSab]

25. The ESA has three provisions:

To provide for protection of the individual members of the species, to provide for critical habitat for the species, and to implement a recovery plan for the species.

THE GOAL IS TO EVENTUALLY DELIST THE SPECIES IN QUESTION.

If the species is considered fully recovered, it's delisted.

It sounds like the original goal was met, so as long as the original goal was appropriate, delisting the species is called for.

[Kolesar]

26. Yes. I don't know if the "shooting" in Wyoming and Idaho will continue, though

I am referring to the bush decision to let individual states have authority to permit such programs. He forced that on the Fish and Wildlife Service.

[blindpig]

27. The problem being

that the minute they are delisted powerful interest groups seek to drive them back to endangered status, if not extinction. I find the requisite numbers rather small for insuring a stable population, I suspect that politics had a hand in reaching those numbers. Given that we can expect a considerable number to be shot or poisoned upon delisting I feel that the numbers should be raised in order to provide a buffer against a population crash.

Of course it would be nice if the ranchers and outfitters didn't go medieval on the wolves at the drop of a hat, but that ain't gonna happen in the near term.