BUSH ADMINISTRATION STRIPS LEGAL PROTECTION FROM NORTHERN ROCKIES WOLVES
Posted on Monday, February 25 @ 07:22:51 EST by jgprimenews |
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SILVER CITY, NEW MEXICO - Feb. 22, 2008 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the
removal of wolves from the Endangered Species Act's list of endangered
and threatened species in a vast area of the northern Rocky Mountains
and adjoining regions Thursday. The move will strip wolves of federal
protections throughout all of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana and portions
of Utah, Oregon, and Washington. Officials from both Idaho and Wyoming
have made clear that they intend to dramatically increase the numbers
of wolves that are shot and killed.
Over 85 percent of the area where wolves will soon be officially
"recovered" has no wolves in it, but any wolves traveling to those
regions may be subject to aerial gunning, trapping, and even poisoning.
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, decades before passage of the
Endangered Species Act in 1973, exterminated wolves from the West,"
said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Bush
administration, acting on behalf of the livestock industry, is
attempting to thwart recovery and bring wolves back to the brink of
extinction."
Although there are more than 1,500 wolves in Idaho, Montana, and
Wyoming, only a fraction of those animals reproduce, since within each
wolf pack only the alpha male and alpha female breed. Thus the
genetically effective population is much lower than the total number of
wolves. Furthermore, Wyoming and Idaho intend to kill approximately
half their wolf populations, to reduce them to 15 breeding pairs in
each state.
Wolves in Yellowstone are completely isolated since reintroduction in
1995 there have been no wolves documented to have traveled from
elsewhere into the Yellowstone ecosystem and successfully bred. Recent
peer-reviewed research predicts genetic "inbreeding depression" and
resulting lower litter sizes in wolf packs in Yellowstone within a few
decades.
The Center for Biological Diversity and allied conservation
organizations sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its April 1, 2003
rule downlisting wolves from endangered to threatened - a prelude to
removing them entirely from the list of protected species. A federal
court reversed that downlisting on January 31, 2005.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service is making the same legal mistake now as
it did in 2003, and imperiling wolves' survival," said Robinson. "This
time, just like last time, this illegal action will not stand in
court."
The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation
organization with more than 40,000 members dedicated to the protection
of endangered species and wild places.
SOURCE: The Center for Biological Diversity
CONTACT: Michael Robinson
Center for Biological Diversity
Tel : 575-313-7017
WEB SITE:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
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