Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

           Wolves in the northern Rockies are at a crossroads: we can continue on our current path of managing them on the edge of extinction or we can fulfill our past commitments and achieve full wolf recovery, according to a new report released today by Predator Project. The Bozeman, Montana-conservation group urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state agencies and the American people to allow wolves to live in the areas they choose, so long as they avoid conflicts with people and livestock in its report, "At a Crossroads: The Wolf and its Place in the Northern Rockies."

           "If wolves can be largely left alone, and tolerated to live in areas where they can find sufficient territory and prey to reach recovery targets, wolf recovery appears to be within our grasp, ahead of schedule and under budget," according to Predator Project's report. "But if we intervene by aggressively controlling wolf distribution and wolf behavior, we will hobble recovery efforts and jeopardize all of the success attained to date."

           "At a Crossroads" examines the tremendous progress made in recovering the gray wolf in the northern Rockies. The report also looks at the obstacles in the way of finishing the job in four key areas: 1) achieving adequate wolf numbers and distribution; 2) connecting wolves across the northern Rockies; 3) maintaining adequate legal protections for wolves; and 4) protecting wolves across administrative boundaries. The report then presents two alternative futures for the wolves, one with a small number of wolves in three isolated areas and one with wolves tolerated on all public lands that can support them.

           "We believe wolves should be free to live on any public land they find suitable" said David Gaillard, Predator Project's Forest Predator Protection Campaign Coordinator. "We wouldn't need helicopters and tranquilizer darts to save the wolves - the wolves would be able to take care of themselves."

           Predator Project found that wolves rarely survive outside of the three core recovery areas: Yellowstone National Park, central Idaho and Northwest Montana. In Greater Yellowstone, for example, Predator Project found that more than two-thirds (22 out of 30) of the human-caused mortalities of the Yellowstone wolves have occurred outside of the national park, even though the wolves have spent the majority of their lives within the Park's borders. Only half of those wolves were killed because they preyed on livestock; the other half were illegally shot or died in government traps set for coyotes.

           Predator Project's report coincides with a letter signed by 21 conservation groups sent this week to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, urging the federal government to abandon plans to "down-list" the status of northern Rockies wolves from "endangered" to "threatened." "At a Crossroads" includes an appendix dedicated to the agency's expected "down-listing" proposal, as an example of premature weakening of the commitments made to recovery.

           "We are strongly opposed to downlisting the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies because it is an effort based not on sound science, but what appears to be a political strategy, and one that may have profound adverse impacts on the recovery of imperiled species nationwide," said the groups in the letter.

-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-
Subscribe to " Wild Rockies Alerts" mailing list!
List-Subscribe: Wild-Rockies-Alerts-on@vortex.wildrockies.org
List-Unsubscribe: Wild-Rockies-Alerts-off@vortex.wildrockies.org
News Submissions or Problems: News@wildrockies.org
The list is a public service provided by WIN.
-=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=-