Details of proposed wolf delisting litigation
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
April 13, 2009
The Wyoming Wolf Coalition has submitted its notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for excluding Wyoming from its wolf delisting rule.
The coalition consists of associations and entities comprised of the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Wyoming Outfitters & Guides Association, Wyoming Association of County Predatory Animal Boards, Cody Country Outfitters and Guides Association, Predator Management District of Niobrara County, Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife Wyoming, and Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation.
The notice of intent to use states that Wyoming Wolf Coalition members "intend to file a civil action for the purpose of enjoining the FWS from violating and continuing to violate the Endangered Species Act, its implementing regulations, FWS policies, and the applicable interagency peer review guidelines. The Wyoming Wolf Coalition also intends to seek an injunction requiring the FWS to undertake an environmental impact statement of its decision to delist the Canadian gray wolf in Idaho and Montana, and in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and to exclude Wyoming from the delisting rule."
The WWC notice of intent followed the State of Wyoming’s notice of intent to sue over the delisting rule as well. Unlike the WWC notice, Wyoming officials are not requesting an environmental impact statement and are not challenging the delisting in other states.
The Wyoming notice, written by the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, notes: "For the third time in the past five years, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ("Service") has rejected the gray wolf management scheme adopted by the State of Wyoming ("State") and demanded that the State adopt a statewide trophy game classification for wolves, even though the best scientific data available confirms that the State’s current wolf management scheme satisfies the legal requirements for delisting in the Endangered Species Act ("ESA"). In doing so, the Service has yet again decided that political expediency should trump its unambiguous legal obligations under the ESA." The state notice simply seeks to have wolves delisted in Wyoming.
Click on the document below to read both the WWC and State of Wyoming notices of intent to sue.
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