New federal rules ease restrictions on wolf hunting

The endangered gray wolves of the Northern Rockies are thriving, and that's bad news for the area's elk herds. (At left is a gray wolf in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo.) The wolves are considered one of the main reasons the elk herds of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are smaller than the USFWS would like, so new federal rules have enacted to make killing wolves easier, reports the Billings Gazette.

"The rules, expected to be published in the Federal Register on Monday and take effect in late February, make it easier for state wildlife agencies, livestock owners and others to kill wolves if they're affecting elk populations or are seen attacking dogs, horses and other stock animals," Mike Stark writes for the Montana paper.

A USFWS official told Stark the new rules would not reduce drastically the area's wolf population, which is estimated at more than 1,500 and growing 24 percent per year. Last year, 26 percent of adult wolves were killed by hunters, and environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife say the new rules could mean hundreds are killed this year. The groups plan to challenge the rules in court and they oppose the USFWS plan to remove the wolves from the endangered-species list next month. (Read more)

For more on the wolves, check out the post by Andrew C. Revkin on the Dot Earth blog of The New York Times.