Endangered Species Act
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Wildlife Services Challenged In early June environmental groups filed a law suit against the euphemistically named “Wildlife Services” WS (formerly Animal Damage Control) to halt its killing of wolves in Idaho. Last year the federal agency killed 72 Idaho wolves at the behest of ranchers, and sometimes hunters as well. In the past decade, WS…
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Except for the uninterested, and there a quite a few of them, the 21-year old controversy over wolf restoration in the West is not really about wolves. Unfortunately instead, it has become another “values” contest. To some degree it has also become another red versus blue dispute. When wolves were first reintroduced in 1995, with…
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Climate change and genetic isolation threaten famously tough predator- MISSOULA, Mont.— Describing the wolverine as a “snow-dependent species standing squarely in the path of global climate change,” a federal judge today overturned an August 2014 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refusing to grant this rare and elusive species any protection under the…
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MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release, March 9, 2016 Aggressive State-sanctioned Hunting, Trapping Should Trigger Ongoing Federal Oversight of Idaho, Montana Wolves VICTOR, Idaho— The Center for Biological Diversity and four other conservation organizations today filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the federal monitoring period for wolves…
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Grayling are one of the unique fish species found in Montana, and part of its natural heritage. Occupying less than 10% of its former historic habitat, the fish is in jeopardy of extinction. Political interference and agency intransigence are the major obstacles for reversing the fish’s fortune. As such, the grayling is case study in…
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MONTANA: Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) denied Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection for the iconic Yellowstone Bison, 14 months after Western Watersheds Project and Buffalo Field Campaign petitioned to list these bison as an endangered or threatened species. The conservation groups sought federal protection for the Yellowstone bison because they are harmed by inadequate…
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VICTOR, Idaho— In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the Northern Rockies fisher, a rare and vanishing species, may warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Fishers are cat-like, medium-sized members of the weasel family with slender, brown bodies and long,…
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New Study: Hunting Likely Spurring Harmful Declines in Northern Rocky Wolves VICTOR, Idaho— Five conservation groups filed a petition today requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue monitoring northern Rocky Mountains gray wolves for another five years. The existing monitoring program, which is required by the Endangered Species Act after protections are removed…
