Next best delisting

By SCOTT McMILLION, Chronicle Staff Writer

LIVINGSTON -- If you want to see wolves delisted in Montana, don't hold your breath.

However, the "second best thing" to delisting could be in place by early next year, according to Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's wolf recovery team leader.

Wolves have have been thriving in and around Yellowstone National Park since they were reintroduced in 1995. The biological recovery goals have been met.

Political and legal hurdles stand tall and wide, however.

Still, it's time to transfer most wolf management responsibility in Montana over to the state, even before the wolf loses its Endangered Species Act protections, Bangs said.

"We're done," Bangs said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "We're enthusiastic about getting the state more involved."

FWS is now revising what's known as the 10J rule, in order to pass along much of its authority to decide when and where to kill problem-causing wolves to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The new rule would let ranchers shoot wolves they see chasing livestock on private land. Doing so is illegal now.

People with grazing permits on federal land would also get more leeway, and FWP would be able, under certain circumstances, to kill wolves causing unacceptable impacts to wildlife populations such as deer and elk.

Recreational hunting and trapping of wolves would not be allowed.

FWP and FWS leaders met Friday in Denver to work on the 10J proposal, said Chris Smith, FWP chief of staff.

"We hope to have that agreement in place early in 2005," Smith said. "It would put the state in the driver's seat."

The proposal was first announced last March, and federal officials said then they hoped to have it installed in three months. Bangs said the delay arose because lawsuits take so much of his time.

"Court orders and court-ordered deadlines take precedence over everything else I do," he said.

Bangs, who has been a central figure in Montana's bitter wolf debates for more than a decade, said he is certain enough about the authority being passed that he plans to begin looking for a new job.

He joked that after so many years in the eye of the storm, a job in a coffee shop might be attractive.

"People come to you for something they want, you give it to them and they thank you," he said.

Endangered Species Act programs are a lot more complicated.

Bangs has been criticized by wolf advocates and detractors alike, sometimes for the same action. If he decides to kill a cow-killing wolf pack, for instance, wolf advocates often get angry while the ranchers are mad that he didn't kill the wolves sooner.

Under the new proposal, state officials at FWP would make most of those decisions.

FWP has hired a new wolf recovery coordinator and is interviewing to fill three wolf specialist positions.

Bangs said he has full confidence in state authorities to protect wolves that don't cause problems and deal appropriately with the ones that do.

Although FWS will retain final authority, he said his agency will back off and let the state do the job.

The federal government, FWP, ranchers, state government and even a growing number of environmental groups say it's time to delist wolves.

However, not everybody feels that way. Smith and Bangs both predicted that somebody will sue to halt the transfer of any power to Montana.

Full delisting is still a possibility, but a distant one, Smith said, and is likely to be mired in lawsuits for a long time.

Scott McMillion is at scottm@dailychronicle.com

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