Tribes, ranchers may suffer if Idaho holds to threat of wolf management

Idaho’s ranchers and the Nez Perce tribe may be left to their own devices if Idaho holds to its governor’s promise of pulling out of wolf management. After meeting with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter sent Salazar an ultimatum to vent his frustration with having to manage wolves under federal rules. He said Salazar should ignore a U.S. district court ruling putting wolves under federal protection and restore state management of wolves by Oct. 7. Otherwise, the state would refuse to fill the monitoring and investigation role it’s carried out since shortly after wolves were introduced. On Friday, Idaho congressmen Mike Simpson and Walt Minnick also sent a letter to Salazar, asking him to immediately address allowing the states to manage wolf populations. Montana and Idaho managed their wolf populations for a year before a district court judge Donald Molloy ruled that endangered species cannot be managed on a state-by-state basis. Because wolves in Wyoming remained on the endangered species list, the court relisted all wolves. Since setting the Oct. 7 date, the Otter camp has backpedaled. Otter’s chief counsel, David Hensley, told the Idaho Statesman that deadlines can be moved and it’s not really a line in the sand. But should Otter hold firm, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t yet know what would happen with wolf management, leading to some uncertainty for ranchers on who would investigate wolf kills or eliminate problem packs. David Potts of the USFWS Pacific region, which oversees Idaho, said the service would initially step in to manage the wolves and look into options of managing with other agencies or entities...more