After two decades of restoration, roughly 1,700 gray wolves now
roam the Northern Rockies. But constant court battles over their management led
Congress to end federal protection in May, using a budget rider to sidestep the
Endangered Species Act (see our May 30 story).
Last week, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy unhappily upheld the
rider, citing precedent set by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals but noting
that Congress’ action showed “disrespect for the fundamental rule of
law.” Kierán Suckling, head of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of
the groups that challenged the rider, told the Lewiston Tribune, “(Molloy) is laying out a road map on how to
appeal his own ruling and take it all the way to the Supreme Court.” And today, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians took the first step, appealing Molloy’s ruling. The Missoulian reports:
(Michael Garrity of Alliance for the Wild Rockies) added that federal District Judge Donald Molloy’s ruling
– released late Wednesday – appeared to give plenty of reasons for
its own overturning.“What Judge Molloy said was he was following 9th Circuit
precedent,” Garrity said on Thursday. “The 9th Circuit can overturn
its own precedent.”
Meanwhile,
Idaho’s wolf-hunting season is slated to begin Aug. 30; Montana’s starts in early
September. The appeal probably won’t block either hunt. And the Interior Department finally agreed on a management plan with
Wyoming. Outside Yellowstone National Park, wolves in northwest Wyoming would
be considered “trophy game”; in the rest of the state they could be shot on
sight year-round.
While the number of wolves has been on a steady trajectory up (at least until now), the number of salmon has been dropping for decades.
Once, 16 million spawning
salmon returned to the Northwest’s Columbia River Basin each year; now, only a small
number do. Biologists recommend removing four dams on the Lower Snake River, but
those dams provide 1,000 megawatts of power and a 140-mile barge corridor, so
the federal agencies involved have resisted. For two decades, Federal District
Court Judge James Redden has struck down the agencies’ salmon recovery plans,
questioning their legal and scientific merit (see our 2009 story “Salmon Salvation“). He’s ordered dam operators to
spill more water during spring to help young salmon, and says that if the runs
don’t recover, dam removal must be an option.
In early August, Judge Redden
shot down another salmon plan for the Northwest, saying it does not clearly
specify how it will improve habitat. The judge gave the agencies until January
2014 to try again; it’s time for them to seriously consider dam removal, he told The Oregonian, since they have “fail(ed) to follow through
with their commitments to hydropower modifications proven to increase
survival.”
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