For the week of December 22, 1997

Babbitt Wouldn't Listen

Three years ago, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt chose to ignore the concerns of ranchers and announced a program that would reintroduce the gray wolf population to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. Babbitt also misinterpreted the law when he launched the initiative.

U.S. District Court Judge William Downes, delivering a painful lesson, reminded Babbitt earlier this month that the law must be his guide when it comes to doing his job. In Farm Bureau vs. Bruce Babbitt, Downes ruled Babbitt exceeded the authority of the Endangered Species Act with the wolf reintroduction program.

Farm Bureau tried to tell Babbitt that bringing the gray wolves into the Yellowstone area posed a threat to area ranchers and their livestock. Babbitt also was reminded that the Endangered Species Act was not intended to reduce protections to existing populations in areas where species were reintroduced. And Farm Bureau tried to tell Babbitt that under the ESA, species can be relocated only to areas where they no longer exist. Gray wolves already inhabited Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. Farm Bureau's concerns fell on deaf ears. Now, Babbitt is scolded by a district judge for violating the very law he used to justify the wolf reintroduction program. If only he'd listened.

"This is a major decision in a sense that it tells the government and tells other people that you cannot do whatever you want to do under the Endangered Species Act," said Rick Krause, Assistant Council for the American Farm Bureau Federation. The gray wolf is not threatened by extinction. What is threatened, however, is the livestock of western ranchers.

"These wolves cause problems for livestock," added Krause. "It's a known fact that wolves prey on livestock and that they kill livestock. The reintroduction program put ranchers in a position that they had to defend their property."

The gray wolf reintroduction program was approved on November 22, 1994. The Montana, Wyoming and Idaho Farm Bureaus, along with AFBF, filed suit three days later. Wolves were brought into the park in January 1995. In finding the reintroduction program invalid, the judge ordered all non-native wolves and their offspring to be removed from Yellowstone and central Idaho.

"We feel that the interests of ranchers have been fully vindicated by this ruling," said AFBF President Dean Kleckner. "It sends a clear message that their interests must be addressed before the government takes actions that directly affect their livelihood."

Since the judge's decision, Farm Bureau has felt the wrath of well-intentioned but misguided animal rights activists and environmentalists. And while the wolves introduced three years ago will have for be removed, Farm Bureau doesn't have much sympathy for them. A Farm Bureau member in Wyoming lost 59 head of ewes and lambs to one wolf before it was tranquilized and taken back to Yellowstone Park. The wolf returned and killed another 15 animals.

Secretary Babbitt moved forward with the wolf program ignoring the implications the plan would have on ranchers. He waived the full and open public debate that normally accompanies our lawmaking process. For his efforts all he got was a dose of legal castor oil. Hopefully, it will cure him of his unwillingness to listen.