December 17, 2015
Wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes are safe for now. The sneaky procedure of slipping wolf delisting riders into budget bills didn’t work this time for the congressional wolf haters and their ranching and hunting backers. The behemoth budget bill was supposed to be a vehicle to go around the courts and delist wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming via delisting rider. Supposedly it was not included due to a warning from the White House the bill would be vetoed if there were any changes to the Endangered Species Act. This is shocking since it was the Obama administration who delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho in 2009. He also supported the wolf delisting rider in 2011, that was slipped into an appropriations bill, which delisted wolves in Montana, Idaho and parts of Oregon, Utah and Washington state, without judicial review. Obama is also challenging Judge Berman’s December 2014 relisting of wolves in the Great Lakes and Wyoming. So it was big surprise the wolf rider was not included in the budget bill but it was certainly a welcome change.
This battle is far from over but at least this year there will be no wolf hunts in Wyoming or the Great Lakes. I wish I could say the same about the beleaguered wolves of Montana and Idaho.
Here’s the evil wolf delisting rider that was stripped out of the funding bill.
“Requiring the Secretary of the Interior to reissue final rules to delist wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes region that were overturned by a federal court and exempting those reissued rules from judicial review.”
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Wyoming wolf provision left out of massive congressional budget bill
Associated Press
Updated 19 hrs ago
U.S. Reps. Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, Reid Ribble, R-Wisconsin, and some other lawmakers had hoped to attach a rider to return management of wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming to the states, which could have opened the door to a resumption of wolf hunting in those places. The provision would have undone federal court decisions that restored the animals’ protected status in the four states despite repeated efforts by the federal government to remove them from the list.
Peterson said budget negotiators dropped the provision from the final bill, which was unveiled late Tuesday, because the White House had threatened a veto if the bill contained any changes to the Endangered Species Act.
“Obviously I’m disappointed,” Peterson said. “We thought it wasn’t going to be a problem because the Fish and Wildlife Service was supporting it.”
Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said supporters will have to regroup and decide on their next step. He said a stand-alone bill probably could pass the House but he’s not sure about the Senate. It’s also possible an appeals court could overturn the lower court decisions, he added.
While livestock interests supported removing federal protections for wolves, wildlife groups lobbied against it.
“It certainly was a pleasant surprise,” said Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Backers of the rider were trying to use a tactic that succeeded in 2011 when Congress removed wolves in Idaho, Montana and sections of Utah, Washington and Oregon from the list.
The combined wolf population in the western Great Lakes region is estimated at 3,700, including about 2,200 in Minnesota, while Wyoming has around 333.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled last December that the western Great Lakes states didn’t have suitable plans to safeguard wolves, and that the animals haven’t come close to repopulating their former range. Her decision prevented Minnesota and Wisconsin from holding sport wolf hunting and trapping seasons this fall. Michigan hasn’t held a hunt since 2013. Another federal judge issued a similar decision in September 2014 in a Wyoming case.
The Obama administration, Michigan, Wisconsin and Wyoming are appealing the two decisions. Minnesota is not formally a party to the Midwest case, but the state attorney general’s office filed an amicus brief Tuesday supporting a reversal.
The brief says Minnesota’s wolf management plan will ensure the animals continue to thrive in the state. It says Minnesota’s wolf population and range have expanded to the point of saturating the habitat in the state since the animals went on the endangered list in 1973, creating “human-wolf conflict that is unique in its cost and prevalence.”
A similar appeal is pending in the Wyoming case. Pacelle said his group, which filed the lawsuit in the Midwest case, will keep up the fight.
“This is not the end of the process, but it’s a good outcome because Congress is showing restraint and not trying to cherry-pick a species and remove it from the list of endangered animals,” Pacelle said.
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Photo: Courtesy wolf wallpaper
Posted in: gray wolf, Endangered Species Act, biodiversity
Tags: No delisting rider, wolves safe in Wyoming and Great Lakes for now, ESA, budget bill, gray wolf, Great Lakes, Wyoming
Reblogged this on Aloe Vera View and commented:
Victory! Wolf Delisting Rider Fails To Make It Into Massive Budget Bill!
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Between wolves and horses getting a bit of a break yesterday, it would have been a #10 day if it hadn’t have been for my dear little dog being deathly ill.
None the less, the good fight goes on for our non human brothers and sisters.
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I’m happy for the wolves and the horses also. I hope your little one will be better soon.
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Between wolves and horses, it would have been a #10 day yesterday if it hadn’t been for one of my dogs being deathly ill.
The good fight isn’t over for the other beings on this planet.
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Great news for the Wolves. Now lets get all of them on the Endangered Species List.
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I thought Cory Booker was a good one to put in the Senate and Boxer is always their on the right side. Their is some room for such a beautiful animal as the wolves and I hope this will travel for all wildlife and let us get in the Grizzly Bear which is on the hot seat now.
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So relieved, so grateful, so happy for the Wolves! At least some of our reps have the intelligence to appreciate the importance of protecting other species.
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Hard to believe that there is actually good news for wolves! Hope no one can overturn it and that that they’ll be safe for.
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OK!
I wrote so many times to Obama administration and legislators, BEGGING them to DENY riders in appropriations bills , especially on the basis of unethical attempt to circumvent proper avenues of legislation – and in this case, the added attempt to prevent judicial review. This issue has not been resolved, but you can see that a law saying that Judicial oversight would be unconstitutional.
Keep that in mind and trumpet it, constantly, as we are using up all our money trying to save wolves in the courts, and the added burden would be immense, as well as involve judges, justices, others who would surely prevent the end of wolf-killing..
Other important news
1. Right now, though,California has a DRAFT Conservation Plan of Wolves in that state.
I see numerous holes in it, worst of which is an extremely low recovery goal.
CA has about 4 wolves in one family right now, with a SW Oregon family of 7 (OR-7 and his mate, 3 yearlings and two new pups which may have survived to this point.
There are reports of two other single wolves in the Wildland east or se of the Rogue Pack’s rendezvous in Sky Lakes.
So, that’s the entirety of possible genes for the Shasta Pack kids to get together with in a minimum of about 14 months. A few wolves disperse as young as 22 months, although they are more likely to stay with mom & dad for nearly 3 years or sometimes more.
Please get all the info you can to MAKE YOUR COMENT SUBSTANTIVE- links to Draft Plan are here:
https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf
Comment here (but PLEASE get together enough to really make a scientific point. I’ll be back to Nabeki’s site to add more somewhere, as she directly deals with it all)
http://wolfconservationplancomments.org/
2. So, Oregon Wild is pushing hard for establishment of a wilderness in Crater Lake National Park, which includes Rogue River headwaters, and other good range. I mention this because wolves don’t really succeed very well over the long term due to ROADS.
I traveled the roads around Sky Lakes, and found the network to be pretty dense, and in talking with a hunter or two, discover that the known mortality effect of dirt roads is due to illegal hunting (although since illegal hunting wasn’t quantified in the Great Lakes studies showing that a square mile of habitat with more than 3/4 mile of road in it leads to impermanence of wolves. We KNOW that human killing of wolves is the reason. Hunters too often say that if they see one they will shoot).
I am going to work on hunters if i can, as some, like some individual ranchers in MT etc., are on the side of wolves.
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Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming’s resident wolf hating congressperson will not be seeking re-election next year. This race is a very important one for those who support wolves.
Make sure you are up-to-date on the positions of the candidates in WY ASAP, as early knowledge is better than fighting the haters after they attain power.
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I just wrote a comment on Writing constantly against riders in bills, the new, flawed CA Wolf Conservation Plan, and the push by Oregon Wild ot add wilderness to Crater Lake NP as wolves need protection from roads & that’s right above the rogue river Pack (OR-7 Mate, five offspring)
It looks like a lot of my writing may not have taken in comments on Nabeki’s postings. It was a lot of work, even though they get lengthy.
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Yay! Also, I have to give President Obama kudos for using the term ‘lone actor’ instead of ‘lone wolf’ in his address at the Office of Homeland Security today. 🙂
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Not so much as FAILED, but i n fact , after extraordinary efforts by wolf and ESA-caring peeps, Obama said no to anti- ESA and anti -wolf factions. Prior to all of us speaking up, Chicago born-and raised , had no clue about wildlife.
Semantics are extremely important. Don’t get egotistical here, or we , and our animal friends, are headed for a fall. Do NOT let narcissism creep in here–yu should be rebuked and embarrassed. After all we have worked for …..
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This is the best comment I’ve seen recently.
It is up to YOU to make sure you speak clearly saying clearly that you will have NO tolerance, ever, for misusing wolves or wildlife.
Right now,California has put out their Draft Wolf Conservation (lethal Management in Disguise) Plan.
Merely the fact that they are using “stakeholders” as primary input to create the plan is an abdication (denial) of the use of science, instead basing wolf presence, numbers,and management upon Politics.
I constantly change my focus when devising what to say in public comment and meetings, but at present, I recognize this to be the basic issue:
“[You] humans have NO right to limit or manage wolves in any way whatsoever*. Neither wolves nor their prey, nor any other native or endangered species, exist for human purposes;
human management is only proper in relation to their OWN species and their domestics. Livestock keeping must remain within the bounds which are not detrimental to the wildlife and natural systems which themselves must be protected from human exploitation.
If livestock raising cannot be accomplished without removing excessive winter habitat from public lands and natural systems, then it rightly SHOULD abandon public lands and wild areas, including wild habitat of ungulates from bison, through moose, caribou, elk, deer – which MUST have genetic connectivity from North to South and East to West across the continent.
Human motorized or otherwise technologically intrusive activity, WHEREVER it causes this connectivity to fail must be eliminated. That technology includes firearm hunting technology, for-profit hunting outfitters/guide services.
*Wolves have been shown in the 20 years of Yellowstone recovery to be SELF-limiting. Following their initial exuberant reproduction after reintro, their populations fell to a level which is beneath their carrying capacity. They have now remained at that level.
Predators are limited in number by prey – this is a tenet of population ecology, proven over and over.
[YNP Wolves quickly rose to 172, and following some disease (introduced into North America by humans and their domestics, including those emergent diseases resulting from humans exceeding proper bounds of companion animals,cats and dogs exist in numbers excessive due to humans scraping the oceans and creating CAFOs)]
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Regroup? The only chance they have is a sneaky rider on a must-pass bill. We know it, they know it, and they know we know it.
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Oh sorry, they can always resort to taking matters into their own hands – playing Mickey-the-Dunce with the McKittrick law to cover them, or SSS. But they will never, ever have the moral high ground.
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A small victory in an ongoing war. We must continue vigilance and also stop slaughter in Idaho and Montana. Be aware that while the people of California demanded and received state ESA protection for California wolves, the CA Fish and Wildlife Commission is talking about limiting wolf numbers to 50, Another battle is coming. Best to all from Dr. Catherine and the Ravensong Group….Please place our logo back on the page, somehow it is missing..
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Reblogged this on Council for all wildlife.
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Yay, thank you
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A small victory but it’s something
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Reblogged this on tvassila.
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[…] Source: Victory! Wolf Delisting Rider Fails To Make It Into Massive Budget Bill! […]
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Wow now can we have the ESA and NO DELISTINGS forever?
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I only ask what give us the right should be no killing axept for servivleor or self defence.
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So happy that we can be free! The freedom for our wildlife and animals in their home and ours!
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Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game.
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Reblogged this on Making Waves Outreach ⚘ Flyers For Animal Rights.
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The only species that needs to be managed are the low life Politicians and the bottom feeder ranchers they cater to in their corrupt agenda. Leave the wolf alone, he has more honor and integrity than the Politicians lusting for its death.
We are not going away and we will continue to fight for the protection of these magnificent animals along with the majority of Americans that visit our National Parks to hear and enjoy the beautiful, wild, sound of the wolf.
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