Wolf Hunts Will Go On; Judge Denies Injunction Bid

New West Missoula ^ | September 9, 2009 | Amy Linn

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U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the fall wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana can proceed, denying a legal effort by environmental groups to stop them.

The Montana and Idaho wolf hunts will not irreparably harm wolf populations and may proceed, according to a ruling filed last night by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy.

Molloy on Aug. 31 heard arguments from environmental groups seeking to halt the fall wolf hunts—the first of their kind in the lower 48—on the grounds that the killings would irreparably harm the species, which was on the Endangered Species List until just this spring. The coalition of 13 environmental groups, which has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an attempt to restore federal protections for the gray wolf, asked Molloy to issue an injunction to stop the hunts, arguing that killing even a single wolf is a problem.

In a 14-page ruling, Molloy disagreed, and said the “low threshold” for irreparable harm—a single wolf death—was not supported by the law. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and Idaho Fish and Game Commission maintained that wolf populations would not be endangered by the hunts, and Molloy found this argument more persuasive.

“The defendants have offered scientific evidence that no irreparable harm will occur if the 2009 wolf hunts occur in Idaho and Montana,” Molloy stated. “Plaintiffs have failed to offer any contrary evidence. As such, assuming that the taking of a single animal is not the standard, there is no basis to find irreparable harm that would justify a preliminary injunction in this case.”

Good news in the bad

Although Molloy did not stop the hunts, he did offer some good news for the environmental groups about a broader issue in the still-ongoing lawsuit to restore Endangered Species Act (ESA) status to wolves. It’s likely that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the law when it summarily removed ESA protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies, he wrote. The agency did so in piecemeal fashion, delisting wolves in Montana and Idaho while keeping them federally protected in Wyoming, where state officials haven’t put enough protections for them into place.

“The [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service has distinguished a natural population of wolves based on a political line, not the best available science. That, by definition, seems arbitrary and capricious,” Molloy wrote.

Wolf advocates today saw the silver lining. “In the big picture, this is a win,” Louisa Willcox, the senior wildlife advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, stated in a press release. “We feel good about the judge’s analysis of the merits of our case.”

Other claims dismissed

The coalition of environmental groups, represented by the Bozeman-based Earthjustice, had also argued that the hunts would cut off wolf territory, preventing distinct populations segments (DPS) from traveling widely, a requirement for genetic diversity and healthy populations. Molloy was not persuaded by that argument.

“The plaintiffs fail to offer evidence that the DPS will suffer irreparable harm if the Idaho and Montana wolf hunting seasons occur in 2009—even assuming hunters manage to kill 330 wolves,” he wrote, referring to the maximum estimated number of wolf-hunt deaths that game officials mentioned in court.

“Defendants provide affidavits from scientific experts that a wolf population such as the northern Rocky Mountain DPS can sustain single season harvest rates in excess of 30 percent,” Molloy wrote. “The wolf hunts here, even if they reach the maximum take in both states, would mean taking about 20 percent of the wolf population, well below what scientists believe the population can easily withstand through a one- or two-year hunt. ... In addition, the hunt is not expected to have any impact on the genetic connectivity,” Molloy concluded.

Environmental groups will be revisiting the matter in court as they continue their efforts to win back federal protections for gray wolves.

In the meantime, Idaho’s wolf hunt, which kicked off Sept. 1, allows hunters to kill 220 of the animals. The quota for Montana’s wolf hunt, which opens Sept. 15, is 75 wolves.

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Wolf hunt Ping!