Back to the Endangered Species Act

 

gray wolf pup

Chris Clarke over at Coyote Crossing has an amazing post discussing the recent attempt of 10 environmental organizations[1] to remove the gray wolf from Montana and Idaho’s endangered species list. These same groups were part of a coalition that secured the gray wolf’s endangered status in Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho only two years ago. Judge Donald Molloy who presided over the case had ruled that “if the wolves in the northern Wyoming part of Yellowstone were endangered, then wolves a hundred yards away in the southern Montana portion of Yellowstone must necessarily be as well” (from Chris). The implications of this ruling are that a species cannot be defined as endangered along political lines but, instead, federal courts must follow scientific evaluation of the species’ recovery. This recent attempt, on the part of the 10 EOs, would subvert that distinction.

The EOs are claiming that this is a strategic move to delay legislative de-listing in congress. Anyway, Chris explains the situation a lot better than I do so check out his post. I do want to quote him though, as his concluding remarks are particularly powerful:

A week ago, heading back home from a hike, I found a tortoise sunning itself warily by the side of a two-lane road. I pulled over about a hundred yards away, greeted the tortoise with hesitant warmth. As long as I stayed more than fifteen feet away, he was content to share his desert roadside with me. I wondered whether he had crossing in mind. SUVs and trucks sped past, doing about 45 or so on average. I’ve helped a tortoise or two cross the road in the past, but only when I was sure they wanted to. I sympathized with this one, dealing with humans like me. Either we’re going about our business blind to what we run over along the way, or we decide we’re going to help and start making decisions that aren’t really ours to make, and if I were a tortoise I don’t know which flavor of human I’d find the bigger threat.

I know a handful of people that could benefit from taking that last sentence seriously. So quick are they to condemn the SUV and OHV-ers that they pay scant attention to their own imperialistic tendencies, the sense that they know what’s best for the world and its entities, that their desires speak for all desires.  We are not shepherds. We are not saviors.

[update: this is an excellent article covering the story]

[update 2: follow up post from Chris here]

[4/10 update: "Wolves at a Crossroads: 2011 The Endangered Species Act in Peril"]

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[1]Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Wildlands Network, Center for Biological Diversity, Hells Canyon Preservation Council, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition