Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Don’t blame the judge, blame Wyoming


Idaho shouldn't blame U.S. District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy for putting wolf management back into the hands of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Idaho should blame Wyoming, where government leaders have steadfastly resisted putting a management plan in place that would meet the provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act.

Unlike Idaho and Montana, which created generally sensible wolf management plans, Wyoming took a contrarian route by deciding to protect wolves just outside Yellowstone National Park, but to treat the rest like so many irritating varmints to be shot on sight.

Judge Molloy ruled that was no good.

Idaho should blame Mother Nature.

Her wildlife doesn't recognize state boundaries and neither does the ESA. Wildlife roams wherever food and reproductive opportunities may lead and ignores the artificial lines between states.

The Wyoming wolves are part of what the ESA calls a "distinct population segment" where wolves in Idaho and Montana interbreed with those in Wyoming.

Judge Molloy ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service couldn't break up the population segment by accepting wolf management plans in Idaho and Montana, but not in Wyoming.

Idaho should blame Congress.

Judge Molloy wrote in his decision, "The Talmudic disagreement in this case is to some degree a product of the fact that the Congress does not explicitly define 'recovery' in the Act."

The judge did what a judge should do. He read the law and then took a look to see if the Fish and Wildlife service had complied with it.

It hadn't.

Wrote Molloy, "Even if the Service's solution is pragmatic or even practical, it is at its heart a political solution that does not comply with the ESA."

While the case was pending, Idaho outdoorsmen spent a lot of time muttering about how judges who spend most of their time inside the dusty pages of law books just don't understand the outdoors and what's happened since wolves have returned to the state.

While the judge acknowledged that the fight about wolves is steeped in what he called "stentorian agitprop," he concluded that it ignores the law.

What to do?

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer ought to put on their best Stetsons, saddle up their ponies, ride on over to the Cowboy State and do a little horse trading with Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal. This bunch of cowboys ought to be able to spur a solution.

And if they don't?

Uncle Sam will call the shots. After all, Uncle Sam owns the ranch.




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