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Appeals Court reverses 1997 wolf ruling by Wyoming federal judge DENVER (AP) - An appeals court ruled Thursday that hundreds of transplanted Canadian wolves can remain in the northern Rockies, a decision that environmentalists hailed as a boon for species recovery efforts nationwide.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2-year-old decision by a Wyoming federal judge who ruled that a government wolf reintroduction program in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho was illegal. The appeals court rejected arguments by officials with state and federal farm bureaus that the program's rules violated the Endangered Species Act. Opponents of the reintroduction program said its rules deprived naturally occurring gray wolves in the recovery areas of their endangered-species protections by treating them the same as reintroduced wolves. Environmental groups that joined Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and other government agencies in the appeal of the Wyoming ruling said the new decision sets an important precedent. "The practical effect is that the wolves are here to stay," said Mark Van Putten, president of the National Wildlife Federation, adding that the decision has "enormous significance nationwide." The court's endorsement of a flexible approach to the goals of the Endangered Species Act is "a strong boost for similar commonsense, pragmatic approaches to other species and other places," he said. Babbitt, whose agency ordered the wolf program and was sued over it by the American Farm Bureau Federation and state chapters in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, called the decision "a ringing endorsement to our wolf reintroduction program." Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, said the ruling marks "a new day for wolves in more ways than one." "The Yellowstone wolves have been given a new lease on life and so has the principle that science - not politics - should guide wildlife restoration efforts in America," he said. Jon Robinett, whose ranch in Dubois, Wyo., about 40 miles from Yellowstone has been hit by repeated wolf attacks on livestock, was disappointed with the ruling. "I just don't think they paid close enough attention to what was presented to them," he said. "Maybe they weren't well-versed in the Endangered Species Act." Idaho Farm Bureau spokesman Dan Goicoechea had not seen the ruling yet. "If it's true, we're disappointed," he said. "It's never been a deal with doing away with wolves. It had to do with the federal government following the law as it was written." Jake Cummins, executive director of the Montana Farm Bureau, agreed. "I believe the consequences of such a ruling are significant for all of us. That means that Congress can no longer limit the intent of the law by the language of their legislation." The appeals court reversed the December 1997 ruling by U.S. District Judge William Downes, who had sided with the farm bureaus. They had argued that the program endangered the naturally occurring wolves because its rules allow ranchers to shoot individual wolves that attack their livestock. Downes had ordered the reintroduced wolves removed, but had stayed his own ruling pending the decision by the federal appeals court. In Thursday's ruling, the court said the 1973 Endangered Species Act and a section added by Congress in 1982 were intended to allow the Interior Department flexibility in its approaches to the goals of preserving and recovering threatened animals. It said the argument that the rules of the reintroduction illegally deny full protections to naturally occurring wolves unnecessarily limits that flexibility, "ignores biological reality and misconstrues the larger purpose of the Endangered Species Act." Such a "restrictive interpretation (of the law) could actually undermine the department's ability to address biological reality, and thus handicap its ability to effectuate species recovery," it said. "The Endangered Species Act simply does not countenance that result." Van Putten said there is a thriving population of about 300 wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho as a result of the reintroduction program, which began in 1995. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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