Monday, April 25, 2011
Editorial: Political move may hurt Ariz.'s gray wolves
That funny noise you heard as President Barack Obama signed the fiscal 2011 budget bill was the Endangered Species Act whimpering in pain. The world's premier environmental law took quite a beating. A provision was tacked on to the budget bill that kicked wolves off the endangered-species list in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Utah. This is the first time Congress has taken a species off the list in the nearly 40-year history of the law. It was an act of political opportunism that could wind up hurting efforts to re-establish Mexican gray wolves in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, even though it does not directly address this vulnerable population of predators. This model of how to circumvent the legal process could hurt Arizona's wolves, which number only about 50 animals in the wild and desperately need protection. There have been proposals in Congress to exempt the endangered Mexican gray wolf from federal protections. Doing this would be a serious betrayal of the nation's natural heritage. The Endangered Species Act and the creatures it protects deserve better treatment than they received from Congress and the president...more
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Now the "experimental population of grey wolves" have moved outside their invisible boundary and are showing up in the Grants area where one was shot. It is the direct responsibility of the managers of this population to remove wolves who stray outside the boundary. They agreed to this in all of the environmental documents they wrote and signed. Now, they only want to enforce what they choose to enforce.
This battle about wolves has ALWAYS been a political battle and not a judicial battle. Defeat the green moonbats and re-write the laws forever concerning the ESA. and EPA!
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