Feds, environmental groups file arguments on wolf recovery

Should the gray wolf's legal status be governed by maps or mates? At stake are Montana and Idaho's ability to have game wardens shoot wolves they suspect of killing too many elk in the Bitterroot Mountains along the state border. On Tuesday, lawyers for the U.S. government and a coalition of wildlife advocates filed their answers with U.S. District Judge Don Molloy in Missoula. The states want to use a part of the federal Endangered Species Act called the 10(j) rule for permission to cull the wolves. The rule gives the agency flexibility to kill endangered species when they threaten livestock or big game, although it does not allow public hunting. The lawsuit started in 2008, when Earthjustice attorneys challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's claim that wolves in southern Montana and Idaho were part of a transplanted, "experimental/non-essential" population that could be managed under the 10(j) rule...more