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Delisting Process Looms The time is rapidly approaching when the delisting process will begin; in December after final 2002 counts are reported. More than likely, there will be the necessary 30 breeding pairs for the third consecutive year necessary to make the delisting criteria. However, there is plenty of room for lawsuits against the FWS and the delisting plan. For one, they are proposing delisting the wolves in 9 western states, 6 of those states do NOT have known packs or lone wolves even surviving in them. Another area of concern and possible legal argument is that the ESA says that a species will be delisted when it again occupies a "significant" portion of its original range. Currently wolves only occupy 8-10% of their historic range. That is not a "significant" portion by any means. And thirdly, all three states in the Recovery Areas (ID, WY, MT) must have management plans that are accepted by the FWS in order for the delisting to go forward. So, there are a lot of obstacles to overcome here, but the delisting battle is certainly beginning to fire on the front burner. And its only going to get more heated in the months ahead. -Renee Interior
official says wolf delisting will happen in 2003 The federal government still plans to remove protections for wolves by next year, a Bush administration official said Wednesday, but lawsuits over that action are inevitable. There is a "100 percent chance" of suits aiming to retain protections under the Endangered Species Act, according to Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the Interior Department, a job that puts him in charge of the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He said the government will be ready to delist wolves in a few months, and it will be ready to defend that action in court. "We're prepared to defend that case because we think the science is on our side," he told the annual meeting of the Western Environmental Trade Association, a group of extractive industry officials and politicians gathered at the Holiday Inn in Bozeman. "When the time is biologically right, it's time to be relieved of the burdens (of the ESA). We're going to get there in 2003," he said. However, others maintain the government stands on fragile legal ground. "Some of my colleagues feel (the government) is quite vulnerable," said Mike Phillips, head of the Turner Endangered Species Fund and a former federal biologist who implemented wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996. The federal government's initial plan calls for delisting wolves in several Western states, from Colorado to Washington, even though most of those states have no wolves. It's the wide geographic breadth of that plan that irks many environmentalists. That plan would kick in after a December count, when biologists expect to confirm the presence of at least 30 breeding pairs of wolves for a third year in a row in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. About 700 wolves now roam those three states. Phillips, widely respected among wolf advocates, said he would "actively lobby" for delisting in the three states, where wolves are "doing fine," but not all across the West. Currently occupied wolf habitat comprises less than 10 percent of historically occupied wolf habitat, Phillips said, and the ESA calls for delisting when a species occupies a "significant" portion of the historic range. "I don't know who would consider 8 percent to 10 percent significant," he said. Still, there is a lot of pressure to delist wolves, which have expanded their territory rapidly. "We have your puppies running all over," Rep. John Esp told Manson at the meeting. Manson, a former district judge and general counsel for the California Department of Fish and Game, also met with the Chronicle's editorial board. In both appearances, he touted Bush's natural resource agenda. The top priority is the president's Healthy Forests Initiative, which calls for thinning and logging fire-prone forests while stripping down some environmental laws. Manson is also eager to make progress on the backlog of maintenance projects in national parks, a project to which Bush has committed $4.9 billion. He wants to make a dent in the onslaught of invasive plants and animals and he wants to make the federal government, which manages hundreds of millions of acres in the West, more accessible to local concerns. "We want to treat the states not as colonies but as sovereigns," he said. And the administration will be one that "involves people who live and work on the land." The canceling of a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiling in Yellowstone "illustrates part of our philosophy," he said, adding that the Bush administration wants to "manage instead of prohibit" snowmobiles. "There will be snowmobiles in Yellowstone hereafter," he said, but they will be "environmentally responsible."
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