Despite an agreement between 10 conservation groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to get wolves off of the ndangered species list in Montana and in Idaho, Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula made the decision over the weekend that that wouldn’t be the case.
Similar to what we heard in Molloy’s last decision on wolves, he cited in this 24-page decision that the court did not have the authority to delist part of an endangered population while the other part stayed on the list. He stated that “Congress has clearly determined that animals on the ESA must be protected as such,” and that the court couldn’t “exercise its discretion to allow what Congress forbids.”
In the meantime, the budget bill that prevented the government shutdown on Friday had within it wording that would delist wolves in Idaho and Montana. But the new language and the final budget resolution bill won’t be finished until later this week.
© Northern Ag Network 2011
Haylie Shipp
