Wolf hunters bag few in Idaho; judge suggests feds wrongly removed species from endangered list

The history of the gray wolf in the Northern Rockies has been anything but steady. The animal, once shot on sight for killing livestock, went from prevalent predator in the 1930s to endangered species in 1974, William Yardley reports for The New York Times. Federal wildlife officials reintroduced wolves to the region in 1995, and by 2008 the wolf population was five times the goal set for reintroduction. "After years of studies and lawsuits wolves were removed from federal protection in Idaho and Montana in May," Yardley writes. The first Idaho wolf-hunting season began Sept. 1. (Times photo by Paul Hosefros)

Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Donald Malloy declined to give 13 environmental groups an injunction that would have halted hunting in Idaho and Montana, Rock Barber of the Idaho Statesman in Boise reports. However, the judge said he thought he would eventually rule in favor of the groups, and said the federal government erred when it chose not to delist wolves from the endagered species list in Wyoming as well. (Read more)

Hunting wolves, which ranchers complained were once again killing livestock, hasn't been as easy as thought, Yardley reports. Idaho has sold more than 14,000 permits, but in the first 10 days of the season only three legal kills were reported.

State Rep. Marv Hagedorn, R-Boise, "is among many people who say the long, bitter fight over the wolf has really been a fight over the West and how to live in it," Yardley writes. Hagedorn tells Yardley that the federal government took too much power from states like Idaho to restore the natural balance disrupted by early settlers. He says livestock haven't been the only things to suffer from the wolf; the hunting industry has suffered from a belief that wolves have made hunting less worthwhile. (Read more)