Online Messenger #203
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Friends,
On April 9, 2011 United State District Judge Donald Molloy ruled in favor of Western Watersheds Project and our allies and denied a Motion from ten other conservation groups for initial approval of a settlement that would have partially stayed Judge Molloy's Order of August 2010 that relisted wolves under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.
If the Motion had been granted and the proposed settlement approved, wolves in Montana and Idaho would have been removed from any protection of the Endangered Species Act.
As you know, WWP opposed the proposed settlement.
Western Watersheds Project was joined in opposition to the settlement agreement by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Clearwater.
Thanks are due to WWP's Montana legal counsel Summer Nelson for her exemplary legal work on behalf of wolves !
Despite this legal victory for wolves, Congressional legislative language that would delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act in Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah survived federal budget negotiations and seems likely to be passed into law unless it is removed in the next three days. Remarkably the legislation would also prevent judicial review of the statute.
This Congressional action to remove protection for a single species is unprecedented in the history of the Endangered Species Act and will drastically undermine the original intent of the Act to require a science-based process for protecting endangered wildlife and plants.
Wolves need your help:
Contact your Senator now !
Contact President Obama !
Ask them to remove language from the federal budget bill that would eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies.
Jon Marvel
Executive Director