Wolf Relisting

FWP Responds to Molloy Ruling on Wolf Listing

By Bea Gordon, 8-12-10

	Gray Wolf in Grand Teton National Park Courtesy of the National Parks Service.

When U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ordered the relisting of wolves on the Endangered Species list, it left Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks with virtually no management options, officials contend. 

“As a result of the recent federal court decision, we are left with no way to actively manage wolves as a Montana wildlife species,” director of Montana FWP Joe Maurier said in a press release sent today that further explains FWP’s intention to push an appeal of the ruling.

Molloy’s court ruled that as a result of Wyoming’s inadequate regulatory mechanisms for wolf management and the threat it poses to the species’ continued recovery, the U. S. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife did not act in accordance with the law by delisting the animal in Montana and Idaho.  Both states currently have the federal green-light on their wolf management plans.

“It’ s disappointing,” Maurier says, “when FWP and the people of Montana have worked so hard and done everything we were asked to do, to see a legal technicality upend the intent of the Endangered Species Act, which is to recover a species.”

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the reintroduction of wolves has surpassed its minimum recovery goal of 30 breeding pairs and 300 individuals.  Since this was achieved in 2002, the wolf population has continued to grow to reach an estimated 1,706 animals in the Northern Rocky Mountain Recovery Area. 

The FWS estimates that Montana is home to roughly 525 wolves, 100 packs, and 34 breeding pairs.

In light of the ruling, Maurier says that the state’s best option is an appeal, which would land the case in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  During this time, he explained, officials would be able to seek a settlement with the 13 plaintiffs including Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Friends of Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Western Watershed Project, among others. 

The ruling calls for the reinstatement of the line between Montana’s northern and southern wolf populations. The endangered population in the north now fall under federal protections for endangered species, while the southern packs are classified as nonessential-experimental populations.  In following with this, state and federal officials are able to employ limited controls for problem wolves in both areas.  In response to the increased protections, however, Maurier laments: “You can’t manage anything successfully or sustainably under such circumstances.”

The FWP hopes to enter into discussions that would remove dual classification by down listing the northern packs from endangered to threatened.  It also hopes to discuss management strategies with Wyoming officials in the hopes that regional cooperation could restore state management authority and bolster the chances of a delisting proposal.

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