Protecting Wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Endangered Species Protections Returned to Gray Wolves
On July 18, 2008, a U.S. District Court judge in Missoula, Montana granted Sierra Club and other conservation group’s request for a preliminary injunction, restoring endangered species protections for wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. This is one small but critically important step in our effort to improve wolf management in the Northern Rockies.

The management plans in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming do not provide adequate protection for wolves. As a result, approximately 90 wolves have been killed since they were removed from the list. The injunction granted by Judge Molloy will help keep wolf numbers from declining while our case challenging the illegal removal of the wolf from the endangered species lists works its way through the courts. Click here to read the press release.

We need to craft responsible management plans that will allow wolves to prosper and will benefit ranchers, hunters, the public and our local economies. The decision is one step forward in an effort to go back to the drawing board and create rational, balanced management plans. Write a letter to the editor today!

Specifics from the injunction decision
The judge’s ruling explains how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service flip flopped on two critical issues: Wyoming’s management plan and the need for genetic exchange among wolf sub-populations. Read the entire decision here.

The USFWS had rejected Wyoming’s wolf management plan in 2004 because it classified wolves as predatory animals in 90% of the state and because it failed to manage for at least 15 packs in the state. Then, in 2007, the USFWS inexplicably approved a nearly identical plan.

Also USFWS had originally asserted that genetic exchange between the Greater Yellowstone area, Central Idaho and northwestern Montana sub-populations of wolves was necessary to maintain a viable population of wolves in the Northern Rockies. In removing endangered species protections for the gray wolf, USFWS reversed its position, claiming that the potential for genetic exchange, rather than actual genetic exchange, was all that was necessary.

Background on wolf delisting
In March 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally removed the gray wolf from the Endangered Species list. With this removal, wolves were in the care of the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Wyoming’s wolf management plan would allow most of the state’s gray wolves to be killed. In addition, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department began to promulgate rules on a hunting season for gray wolves in Wyoming that would allow 25 wolves to be taken each year.

Sierra Club is opposed to delisting for several reasons and is challenging the decision. Recent scientific studies have shown that there has been little genetic interchange between the three sub-populations of wolves in Central Idaho, Montana and the Yellowstone area. Without this biological interchange, wolves could become genetically isolated and at risk of inbreeding over the long term. There must be significant genetic interchange between the sub-populations in order for wolves to be sustainable into the future. During the delisting public comment processes in 2007, hundreds of scientists from around the world opposed delisting on similar grounds.

Also, the state wolf management plans are overly aggressive towards wolves. Right now, the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming lack responsible wolf management plans. The state plans are based on politics rather than the best available science. Without responsible plans, we risk ending up right back where we started, with wolves on the brink of extinction.

Wyoming has a law on the books that mandates wolves be managed aggressively. Wolves are dually classified in Wyoming, as trophy game animals in the northwest corner of the state and as predatory animals in the majority of the state.

Within the trophy game area, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will manage wolves. Outside of the trophy game animals, wolves aren't managed at all and can be killed on sight by shooting, trapping, poisoning or any other legal means. More than a dozen wolves have already been killed in the predator zone.

These aggressive wolf killing practices, coupled with genetic isolation and premature removal of protections, could push wolf numbers dangerously low and reverse decades of recovery work.

Click here to read Sierra Club’s press release regarding Fish and Wildlife's decision to delist the gray wolf.

Sierra Club and other conservation groups are challenging delisting, filing suit in april 2008. Read the press release and the delisting fact sheet.

You can make your voice heard too. Click here to send a letter to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne opposing delisting.

Wolf management plan overview
Wyoming’s wolves will be dually classified as trophy game animals in northwestern Wyoming and as predators across the remainder of the state. Where wolves are classified as trophy game animals, they will be managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

According to the Department’s regulations (Chapter 21), wolves will be aggressively managed by “aerial hunting and hazing to protect private property including livestock and domesticated animals.” WGFD can also use other lethal control techniques within the trophy game area.

Where wolves are classified as predators, they can be taken by any legal means, including trapping, poisoning, snaring and aerial hunting.

Most residents opposed to management plan
The economics, science and public opinion of wolves in Wyoming clearly indicate that no radical changes should be made to wolf management when delisting occurs. According to Game and Fish’s own survey results, 72% of Wyoming residents opposed the state’s management plan and 69% of Wyoming residents think there should be more wolves in the state.

Related background information
On January 24, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a revised special rule for non-essential experimental populations, known as the “10j” rule. This rule will allow states to kill wolves even while they still maintain protection under the ESA. Montana, Idaho and Wyoming will be allowed to kill wolves when they are deemed to be having an unacceptable impact on wild ungulate populations.

The rule will allow the states to kill of all but 600 of the approximately 1,500 wolves in the region and would undo years of recovery work.

Click here to read Sierra Club’s press release.

Sierra Club and other conservation groups are challenging the rule. Click here to read the groups’ press release.