Friday, December 30, 2011

Wolf debate started, ended in Congress this year

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian  

Editor's note: As 2011 draws to a close, the Missoulian is updating a few stories from the past 12 months.

The year in wolves started and ended in Congress.

After spending most of 2010 in the courtroom, the wolf issue moved to Washington, D.C., in February when all three members of Montana's congressional delegation introduced bills to take the predator off federal Endangered Species Act protection.

At the same time, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists captured 44 cow elk in the Bitterroot Valley to study why elk populations there were falling so drastically. Wolves had been blamed for the crash.
Back in the courtroom, a bunch of the wolf advocates who successfully kept wolves under federal management proposed a deal where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could hand over control to state agencies. But four members of the original lawsuit coalition refused to go along, dooming the settlement.
In April, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, got companion riders into the federal budget bill delisting the wolf and prohibiting any further court challenges to the rule change. That measure passed, and Idaho and Montana hunting officials got to work setting up fall hunting seasons, as well as a legal challenge over whether Congress could tell the courts to ignore an issue.

Idaho imposed no limit on how many of its estimated 700 to 1,000 wolves could be shot, although its state wildlife officials pledged not to get close to the federal minimum of 150 animals. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks set a 220-wolf quota out of a population believed between 500 and 700 animals.

The Bitterroot elk study tagged an additional 66 elk calves in May and June to see what was preying on juveniles. Preliminary results found eight calves were killed by mountain lions, four by bears, four by natural causes and one by a wolf over the summer. However, wolf predation is assumed to climb during winter months.

In August, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy wrote a convoluted opinion that the congressional court prohibition was legal, although he thought it violated the Separation of Powers doctrine in the U.S. Constitution. That question is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Human hunters bagged 120 wolves in Montana by late December. In Idaho, hunters killed 173 wolves while trappers accounted for another 22. Both states extended their seasons, with Montana's now lasting through Feb. 15 and Idaho going until March 31.

The finale of wolf news came from Washington, D.C., where congressional negotiators removed a rider from the omnibus budget bill that would have given Wyoming's wolf management plan immunity from court challenges.

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