Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., wants to kill one federal
environmental program to fund another. His amendment to the
recently passed Interior appropriations bill would cut wolf
reintroduction budgets and give the money to whirling disease
research. Burns told The Billings Gazette that “whirling disease
represents a real threat to Montana’s economy and environment,
while wolf reintroduction is misguided and frivolous.”
Burns would divert $200,000 from wolves to a
Montana State University project in Bozeman studying the parasitic
infection that affects trout cartilage and eventually kills the
fish. Burns fears a loss of tourist dollars if popular fishing
streams get infected. Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders
of Wildlife, says Burns’ proposal to cut wolf funding makes no
sense.
“Bringing back the wolves to Yellowstone
National Park is the most popular thing the Park Service has done
in decades,” he says.
*Shea
Andersen
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Burns would shear wolf funding.
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