Thursday, June 12, 2025
60.0°F

New administration impacts wolf status

Brandon Roberts | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 16 years, 4 months AGO
by Brandon RobertsWestern News
| January 26, 2009 11:00 PM

Just 48 hours into his new administration, President Barack Obama placed a moratorium on former President George W. Bush’s 11th-hour measures.

“The use of an executive order to freeze what is in the pipeline for review has become standard operating procedure,” said David Parker, political science professor at Montana State University. “It is the normal dance of politics.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s effort to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list in the northern Rockies and the western Great Lakes regions is one of the measures up for re-evaluation.

Kent Laudon, wolf management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the move was not political. However, he fears it may become so in the near future.

“This move is not directly specific to wolves,” Laudon said, “even though some groups are making it sound as if it was. Trying to link it to Bush is a bad deal. I think those groups will try to get (Obama’s) ear.”

Laudon said FWS has been attempting to turn over wolf management to the states since 2002.

“The wolf population is recovered,” he said. “My hope is that (FWS) looks at it so the next best conservation move is for the species and Montana to take over management and deal with wolves with no special status.”

In a press release dated Jan. 14, President of Defenders of Wildlife Rodger Schlickeisen said, “We look forward to working with the new administration to fix (delisting) and to ensure wolf recovery that truly merits taking wolves off the endangered species list.”

The Defenders of Wildlife was a successful litigant when FWS made an effort to delist in 2008 and according to Schlickeisen – they will seek another injunction if a similar action is pursued.

Wolves were first listed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in March 1967 and reintroduced to Montana in November 1994.

Laudon said the FWP consists of “professional scientists and managers who are transparent and objective. We serve the people and the resource.”

There is no established timeline on when an FWS decision would be issued.

MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Wolves delisted but challenges lie ahead
The Western News | Updated 16 years, 4 months ago
Wolf delisting back on track
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 16 years, 3 months ago
New proposal would ease wolf protections
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 16 years, 4 months ago

ARTICLES BY BRANDON ROBERTS

November 16, 2011 3:25 p.m.

Incumbents retain seats in election

November 9, 2011 1:51 p.m.

Somers Middle School garden nourishing bodies and minds

Nestled and dormant within the mind’s mulch sat a seed, a potential needing only the correct conditions to sprout. Within this seed were not the conventional items of leaves, stems and roots. Rather it was an idea soon to be cultivated by its creator.

November 23, 2011 11:38 a.m.

Funding available for path completion