Judge Rules Rural Idaho is Expendable n Wolves Aren’t
By Frank Priestley, Idaho Farm Bureau
Friday, August 8, 2008 3:49 PM CDT
Pop quiz folks: What’s more important, rural Idaho families or the perception of genetic viability among Canadian gray wolves? If you thought it was the families, business owners and the agricultural economy that built this state, we’re sorry but you are wrong.
In what could go down as one of the biggest ham-fisted maneuvers ever, federal judge Donald Molloy gave rural Idaho a boot to the guts July 18, granting a preliminary injunction to reinstate Endangered Species Act protection for wolves.
Federal judges are untouchable and while there is a chance this decision could be overturned on appeal, it’s likely to take 15 to 32 months, which is approximately enough time to add another 150 wolves to Idaho’s blossoming population.
There is nothing our state elected officials, or congressional delegation can do about it. So basically the radical environmental groups are running Idaho from their ivory towers back east, and things are probably going to get worse before they get better. Our only option now is to hurl insults, tear apart this incredibly naïve and biased court decision, and hold out hope that some judge higher up in the federal court kingdom has at least a lick of common sense, which seems iffy.
Judge Molloy’s 40-page decision to reinstate federal protection to a pack of wolves that is growing by 20 percent per year is so unscrupulous and dishonorable it makes us wonder if he is on more than one payroll. The document is loaded with unsubstantiated conclusions, so much so that we don’t have space to address them all. The biggest is the assertion that there isn’t enough genetic exchange between subpopulations of wolves. In other words, Molloy believes wolves from central Idaho aren’t moving into Yellowstone, Montana or Wyoming to breed, which threatens the overall wolf population because of a lack of genetic diversity.
Memo to Judge Molloy: Wolves don’t fear people, with ESA protection they have no reason to. They travel wherever they want and kill whatever they want. They go right up on porches and run through backyards to kill dogs, they’ve crossed every geographical barrier in this state, including rivers, freeways, mountain ranges and railroads. They are documented in Utah, Oregon and Washington. They have successfully populated the most rugged wilderness in the lower 48. We have too many wolves in Idaho now, and they are a huge financial burden on rural communities.
We are sure Judge Molloy and his environmental cronies don’t care about any of these arguments or the families whose livelihoods this decision places in peril. But we hope someday they’ll understand that their actions have put good people in harm’s way.
Our bottom line is that U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists, among the foremost wolf experts in the world, have determined the northern Rockies wolf populations are sustainable now. Shouldn’t that be good enough?
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Kelly wrote on Dec 21, 2008 4:37 PM: