The recent ruling by a federal judge that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt violated the Endangered Species Act when he introduced wolves into Yellowstone Park is another reminder to Utahns of the way the Clinton administration designated the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Just because Babbitt thinks the public supports his ideas is no justification for violating the law, as a federal judge says he did in the Yellowstone wolf transplant case.
Three years ago, Babbitt chose to ignore the valid concerns of ranchers and announced a program that would reintroduce the gray wolf population to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. Babbitt also misinterpreted the law when he launched the initiative.U.S. District Court Judge William Downes, delivering a painful lesson, reminded Babbitt in December that the law must be his guide. In Farm Bureau vs. Bruce Babbitt, Downes ruled Babbitt exceeded the authority of the Endangered Species Act when he launched the wolf reintroduction program in 1994.
Farm Bureau tried to tell Babbitt that bringing the gray wolves into the Yellowstone area posed a threat to area ranchers and their livestock. Babbitt also was reminded that the Endangered Species Act was not intended to reduce protections to existing populations in areas where species were reintroduced.
And the Farm Bureau tried to tell Babbitt that under the act, species can be relocated only to areas where they no longer exist. Gray wolves already inhabited Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. The Farm Bureau's concerns went unheeded. Now Babbitt is scolded by a district judge for violating the very law he used to justify the wolf reintroduction program. If only he'd listened.
According to Rick Krause, assistant counsel for the American Farm Bureau Federation, this is a major decision in a sense that it tells the government and tells other people that you cannot do whatever you want to do under the Endangered Species Act. The gray wolf is not threatened by extinction. What is threatened, however, is the livestock of Western ranchers.
There is no disputing the fact that wolves prey on and kill livestock. And ranchers, because of an overly ambitious program designed by the secretary of Interior, were forced into a position of defending their property and rights. Those who say wolves don't attack humans either don't know the record or choose to ignore it. Over 70 children were killed by wolves in one recent year in India. Here in America, wolf hybrids and rabid full-blood wolves have attacked and seriously injured people in several parts of the country.
According to wildlife researchers at Utah State University, it is quite likely that Yellowstone wolves will migrate to Utah. So this is an issue of valid concern to Utah ranchers as well. These newly introduced wolves have already killed at least 105 sheep and 15 cattle outside Yellowstone's boundaries. That's just those carcasses ranchers could find. To their credit, the Defenders of Wildlife have compensated ranchers for at least part of their animals killed by wolves. However, this compensation agreement does not continue after the government declares the wolf population to be "recovered."
The gray wolf reintroduction program was approved Nov. 22, 1994. The Farm Bureau filed suit three days later. Wolves were brought into the park in January 1995. Downes' decision deemed the reintroduction program invalid, and he has ordered all non-native wolves and their offspring to be removed from Yellowstone and central Idaho.
The interests of ranchers have been fully vindicated by this ruling. It sends a clear message that their interests must be addressed before the government takes actions that directly affect their interests. It also sends a clear message that the Farm Bureau will take whatever action is necessary to protect those interests when they are ignored. Since the judge's decision, Farm Bureau has shouldered its share of heat from well-intentioned but misguided animal rights activists and environmentalists.
It is not Farm Bureau's wishes to have these wolves killed. Farm Bureau hopes the government backs up its assertion that it could easily capture and remove all Canadian wolves from the Yellowstone and central Idaho region. Farm Bureau has never advocated killing the wolves as a means of removal. Those who say the Farm Bureau wants the wolves killed are either unaware of the facts or are purposely trying to defame the organization.
This issue, however, goes beyond an animal rights issue. It's a matter of what's right - and legal. Babbitt, ignoring the implications the plan would have on ranchers and the Endangered Species Act, moved for-ward with the wolf program. He turned a deaf ear toward the Farm Bureau's concerns. For his efforts all he got was a dose of legal castor oil. Hopefully, it will cure him of his unwillingness to listen.