De- listing wolves again?

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kinzysdad
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De- listing wolves again?

Post by kinzysdad » Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:03 pm

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is upholding a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and the Great Lakes from the endangered list.

Salazar said Friday that wolves would remain a protected species in Wyoming because its law and management plans are not strong enough.

He says the Endangered Species Act successfully had kept the wolf from going extinct in the two regions.

The Bush administration announced the removal of the wolf from the endangered list in January, but the Obama administration reviewed the decision.

John Flesher reported from Traverse City, Mich.
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Re: De- listing wolves again?

Post by MuleyMadness » Sat Mar 07, 2009 10:57 am

Gray wolves to remain delisted; wolf fans mourn decision
By Amy Joi O'Donoghue
Deseret News
Published: Friday, March 6, 2009 11:14 p.m. MST


Bonnie Whyte remembers the meeting well, just the two of them locked in a gaze, no one moving, herself barely able to breathe.

The two were separated by 25 feet — the retired high school biology teacher on Easter vacation and the lone gray wolf.

As quickly as they found each other, Whyte said, she turned to motion to her sister, and he was gone.

"I watched him, he watched me. It was not menacing, it didn't growl. It was magical."

Whyte, a nature lover and wolf advocate, is among the critics of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's announcement Friday that he will stand by the January decision to remove the gray wolf from the endangered and threatened species list. The delisting affects the western Great Lakes and a portion of the Northern Rockies region, which includes Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah.

The wolf will stay protected in Wyoming, which Salazar said has so far failed to demonstrate it can craft a wolf-management plan that inspires success in recovery efforts.

Salazar said his decision hinges on the success of recovery efforts made since the gray wolf was placed on the endangered species list in 1974.

"Today we have more than 5,500 wolves, including more than 1,600 in the Rockies," he said during a teleconference in Washington, D.C.

The Rocky Mountain population targets were for 30 breeding pairs and at least 300 wolves, a goal that was attained in 2002 and has been surpassed every year since, Salazar said.

Regardless, Whyte said, any delisting is cold-blooded and breaks her heart.

"It just makes me want to cry," the Bountiful woman said.

Whyte received a petition in the mail earlier this year from the Natural Resources Defense Council urging the Obama administration to "call off the guns" and reverse President George W. Bush's policy of "slaughtering wolves."

She made copies, circulated them for signatures in her neighborhood and among her family members, who she said are ardent wolf fans as well.

"I think it barbaric, and none of us can understand why they are doing it," Whyte said, adding that she believes appropriate compensation plans are in place for ranchers who lose their livestock to wolf kills.

"And if somebody wants a trophy, what good does that one wolf body do? Isn't it better to let it live to give maybe 20 people over its lifetime a chance to see it in the wild?"

Randy Parker, chief executive officer of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, said he understands well Whyte's feeling about the delisting because "we are just as emotional on the other side."

"I grew up on a sheep and cattle ranch and saw firsthand what predators can do to a lamb, adult sheep or a young cow," Parker said. "From an emotional standpoint, it is difficult to see. We have to have the ability to control wolves."
Clark Willis, a member of the Utah Wool Growers' board of directors, agrees, saying Salazar's decision was sound.

"This is awfully good news as far as I am concerned because there are too many wolves," Willis said. "... This protects the wolf as long as he behaves, and when he doesn't he can be removed."

The extreme sentiments on either side of the issue don't surprise Craig McLaughlin, the wildlife section chief of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

"Wolves are contentious anywhere they exist," McLaughlin said. "People either love wolves or hate them. It is an animal that sparks a really guttural reaction in people — those who are impressed by the power of the animal or are concerned about their effects on livestock and big game. The truth is somewhere in between."

McLaughlin said the decision only impacts a small section of north-central Utah, and Utah, as of now, does not have a wolf population.

Every once in awhile, he said, the state gets the "occasional" wandering wolf that is passing through. One such wanderer left Yellowstone just a couple of months ago, moved south into Idaho, popped into Utah and has since moved on to Colorado.

Salazar's reaffirmation of the January decision to delist does kick into action the state's wolf-management plan for that small area. The plan, McLaughlin said, will allow Utah to manage any wolves that do show up in concert with other land-use activities.

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