So feds, live with it and start protecting the bear’s habitat better-
link fixed! Judge keeps Yellowstone grizzly on threatened list. AP
Judge Molloy rejects feds request to reconsider his relisting of the Yellowstone area grizzly bear
by
Author
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Comments
Good thing, now lets hope he will do the same with the wolves in the future!
Now that the wolf seasons been extended maybe an injunction against that should be sought.
Good job Judge Molloy!! The Great Bear deserves all the protection it can get. Now I hope the beleaguered wolves will get the same.
Ralph: Do you have a link to the decision?
JB,
Here it is from Sept. 21. http://www.westernwatersheds.org/legal/09/grizzly-bear/09-21-09GrizOrder.pdf
I read through it. Molloy writes a great deal about DPSs and “significant portion of a range,” but I got a bit confused. Anyway, he vacated the delisting in a summary judgment and remanded the matter for further consideration to the agency. It’s clear from subsequent events that “the agency’s” reconsideration is going be deliberately slow and ineffective, and as Hoskins indicates below, they will appeal it to the Ninth Circuit.
The FWS didn’t help itself by filling the media full of complaints about Molloy’s original decision to relist, calling it misguided and ignorant. Same thing at the YGCC meeting in Jackson two weeks ago.
If you read the latest decision, you can tell from the pre-emptory tone of expression that Molloy wasn’t amused by all the anti-relisting publicity the feds were putting out about how he didn’t know what he’s talking about.
While you expect that kind of thing from the State of Wyoming about federal court decisions, it was a little over the top for a federal agency.
At the YGCC meeting, Chris Servheen said they hadn’t made a decision about appealing to the 9th Circuit if Molloy ruled against the FWS; no doubt they were expecting a contrary decision–and they got what they expected. It appears they’re going to wait for the Idaho decisions on grizzlies before deciding about appealing to the 9th.
Perhaps they’ll decide to obey the law for once. For one thing, they’re going to have to designate critical habitat. We’ll see.
RH
A great decision for the bears. This gives me some hope for the future of the grizzly bears in the inter-mountain west.