GOP budget bill lifts wolf protections

A Republican budget bill would strip gray wolves of Endangered Species Act protections across most of the Northern Rockies - an indication the new Congress intends to move swiftly to settle the long-running legal skirmish over the predators.

Biologists estimate that more than 1,700 wolves inhabit the region, in at least 115 packs that are taking a mounting toll on domestic livestock and big game herds.

Two prior attempts to lift protections for the predators were reversed by a federal judge in Montana following lawsuits from environmentalists. Now lawmakers want to shield the Department of Interior from future legal challenges, effectively making Congress the final arbiter on whether wolves have recovered.

The wolf measure was tucked into the GOP's continuing budget resolution. Introduced Friday in the House, it would fund the government through the end of the 2010 fiscal year on Sept. 30. An earlier budget resolution is due to expire March 4.

The two-sentence provision directs Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to reissue a 2009 rule that took wolves off the endangered list in Montana, Idaho and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah. The reinstated rule "shall not be subject to judicial review," according to the provision.

It was added to the budget bill by Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican who chairs the appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Interior Department.

"Not only do wolf populations far exceed recovery goals, but without proper management those populations have grown to the point where they are adversely impacting other wildlife populations in the region and wreaking havoc for ranchers, hunters, and public land users in Idaho," Simpson said in a statement.

The measure would leave in place protections for wolves in the desert Southwest, the upper Great Lakes and in one Northern Rockies state, Wyoming.

After facing widespread extermination last century, wolves have made dramatic a recovery since their reintroduction to central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s. But as the population has expanded to occupy portions of five states, attacks on livestock and big game herds have drawn a rising backlash from ranching and hunting groups, two powerful constituencies in the West.

The Obama administration - like the Bush administration before it - has supported efforts to remove wolves from the endangered list. The predators temporarily lost federal protections in April 2009, allowing Idaho and Montana to host hunts for the animals before a ruling last summer from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy halted the practice.

Wildlife advocates contend the wolf's recovery remains incomplete, with the species remaining at risk from hostile state laws and still limited to less than 5 percent of its historic range.

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, predicted that the wolf provision would be stripped out by lawmakers hesitant to load up a budget bill with unrelated items. But he added that the measure underscores the eagerness of some lawmakers to get wolves off the endangered list.

"They are signaling right out of the gate that they are coming after wolves and are going to continue to come after them," Suckling said.

The exclusion of about 300 Wyoming wolves from Simpson's wolf provision stems from a controversial law there that designates the animals as predators subject to being shot on sight across most of the state.

Separate legislation introduced last week by Montana Democratic U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester closely tracks the Simpson provision, also leaving out Wyoming.

But others want Wyoming included.

Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg - sponsor of a bill that would remove protections for wolves nationwide - suggested Monday that Simpson's measure could allow "unelected bureaucrats" to put wolves back on the endangered list at a later date.

The president of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, David Allen, said the hunting group "will not support anything that ultimately leaves Wyoming out."