Federal Budget Deal Also Took Gray Wolf Off Endangered Species Act

The gray wolf population of five Western states will come off the Endangered Species List in mid-June due to a rider attached to the federal appropriations bill approved and signed last month. Included in the bill was the rider by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) reinstating the 2009 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule that removed federal protection for wolves in Idaho, Montana, and parts of Washington, Oregon, and Utah. The rider returns wolf management to those states and bars court challenges. Wyoming's wolves, however, remain under federal protection.

Wolves were on the first endangered list created by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and had had federal protection since then. In 2007, 2008, and 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed delisting them, noting that population goals had been met. The 2009 effort initially proceeded, and Montana and Idaho held statewide hunts, with 188 wolves killed in Idaho and 72 in Montana. The Montana hunt around Yellowstone National Park ended early when nine wolves, including the alpha male and female and two other members of Yellowstone National Park's Cottonwood Pack, were killed in the first three weeks. In August 2010, in response to a challenge by conservation groups, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ordered that wolves be relisted. At present, 1700 wolves inhabit the Rockies, including 400 to 450 wolves in the greater Yellowstone area. That number includes an estimated 97 in the park. Wolf hunts will resume in Montana and Idaho.  

The Endangered Species Act has been affected by an unrelated bill rider once before. In 1979, Congress exempted Tennessee's Tellico Dam from the act, overriding a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that stopped dam construction to protect the snail darter fish.