Tuesday, November 29, 2005 3:45 PM EST
By Tim Spielman Associate Editor
Minneapolis Following two setbacks in U.S. court, a proposal to delist timber wolves - in Wisconsin and across the nation - may be, in part, scrapped, and the process begun anew, according to Ron Refsnider, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listing specialist at Ft. Snelling, Minn.
A judges decision nearly a year ago wiped out federal downlisting of wolves from endangered to threatened, nearly nationwide.
As of last week, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice still were determining whether or not to appeal the decisions of courts in Oregon and Vermont, both of which ruled in favor of lawsuits that similarly argued public comment was not adequately allowed on a proposal that creates three distinct population segments for wolves across the U.S. and likely would lead to state management of the species.
In the Midwest, were still convinced wolves are recovered, Refsnider said. We just need a way to delist them.
In the Midwest, Minnesota boasts a wolf population of about 2,500, while Wisconsin has a minimum of 450, and Michigan is nearing 400 animals.
Depredation permits
In the wake of the court rulings - Oregon in January and Vermont in August - that placed delisting on hold, states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where wolves again were classified as endangered, applied for permits to allow the killing of wolves that chronically were causing livestock depredation. (In Minnesota, the practice continued to be allowed, as it had for several years.)
But in September, the ability of states like Wisconsin and Michigan to manage depredating wolves via lethal control ended when a federal court ordered an injunction regarding the permits. According to Refsnider, the injunction on the subpermits was issued because the USFWS failed to seek public comment before issuing them.
Refsnider said a comment period on the depredation permits recently closed, and officials were evaluating the feedback. He said the agency, based on its findings, could issue states the permits by next spring, meaning states again could request USDA Wildlife Services to dispatch problem wolves.
This would give Wildlife Services clear authority to kill problem wolves preying on domestic animals, he said.
Before the injunction, Michigan was issued one permit, under which two wolves were killed, Refsnider said. In Wisconsin, which has a greater interspersion of agriculture and wolf territory, three permits resulted in the killing of more than 20 depredating wolves.
Without the permits in place, Refsnider said the agency worries that in places like Wisconsin, citizens might begin to exercise their own wolf control.
The real fear is that people will think neither the federal government nor the state is controlling problem wolves, so someone has to do it, he said. Penalties are stiff for illegally killing wolves, Refsnider added, and theres the chance that the wrong wolves might be killed - those that arent actually causing depredation problems.
Our target is to have (permits to kill depredating wolves) ready by early in 2006, he said. We realize the calving season will be coming up shortly.
Refsnider called the permitting system complex, stating the agency had to satisfy conditions laid out in both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Reclassification & delisting
In 2003, the USFWS changed the listing status and protection of wolves by creating three distinct population segments (Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin were included with several northeastern states and the Dakotas in one DPS). Only the southwestern DPS kept wolves status as endangered.
At the prompting of the Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, and more than 20 other animal protection groups, the lawsuit was brought before the Oregon judge, who ruled in January 2005 that the DPS boundaries and reclassification decisions were arbitrary and capricious, and therefore violated the Endangered Species Act.Therefore, the service currently considers the gray wolf to have reverted back to the ESA status that existed prior to the 2003 reclassification, the USFWS web sites states.
Plaintiffs in the case celebrated the decision.
Its a great victory for wolf populations within the United States, as well as for other endangered species that are currently listed under the ESA and struggling to make a recovery, said Patricia Lane, senior attorney in the Animal Protection Litigation Section of the HSUS, in a HSUS news release earlier this year.
Whether or not the solicitor general from the Justice Department decides to appeal the Oregon and Vermont court decisions, We feel we did it right the first time, Refsnider said. Now we need to figure out how to comply (with the court decisions).
Refsnider said the agency could put delisting on the fast track once the Justice Department makes its decision. To meet all the federal requirements, we only really need a year, he said. Weve done it once before.
Refsnider said theres lots of data and lots of updating that needs to be done. Further, he suspects, based on the court rulings, that the nation could be divided into a greater number of DPSs. Or it could remain at just three.
Weve been talking about the full spectrum of options, he said.
Different rules for several different distinct population segments could create other problems, Refsnider said.
Depredation compensation
While federal officials in Minnesota take action to remove problem wolves from the population, the tab for depredation - in Minnesota, as well as in Wisconsin and Michigan - is picked up by the states.
In Wisconsin and Michigan, its the departments of natural resources; in Minnesota, its the Department of Agriculture.
Refsnider said it would be up to states to handle wolf depredation and subsequent compensation. In Wisconsin, dog owners - as well as livestock producers - may be compensated for wolf depredation.
In the meantime, federal wolf managers will prepare in the event an appeal of the court decisions fails to materialize.
http://wisconsinoutdoornews.com/articles/2005/12/02/news/news3.txt
