Idaho officials, wolf advocates react to ruling

After a federal judge restored Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and other state and federal officials criticized the decision while advocates for the predator reacted with joy.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy granted a preliminary injunction late Friday in Billings, Mont., restoring the protections for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Molloy will eventually decide whether the injunction should be permanent. It was sought by groups including Defenders of Wildlife to prevent planned hunts later this year in all three states.

In January 2007, Otter said he planned to bid for the first wolf-hunt tag when they became available. Otter spokesman Mark Warbis said Friday the state would carefully consider its options.

"The governor disagrees with the decision and is disappointed," Warbis said. "The wolf population in Idaho is strong. The state of Idaho has developed a sound and responsible plan for managing wolves to maintain a sustainable population."

A new wolf hunting season adopted by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission in May set a goal of 518 predators - about half the roughly 1,000 wolves estimated to be in Idaho. The three-state region has an estimated 2,000 wolves.

Steve Nadeau, large carnivore coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said his agency had delayed the start of tag sales for the state's first wolf hunt - planned to start Sept. 15 in Idaho - while Molloy's decision was pending.

With the decision, the future of the hunts has been thrown into uncertainty.

"We disagree with the results, obviously," Nadeau said. "I haven't read the case, so I'm in no position to comment on that further."

The news left Defenders of Wildlife spokeswoman Suzanne Stone in Boise elated and emotional. After learning of the decision in a phone call from The Associated Press, she let out a scream and tried not to start crying.

"I don't think you can print whooping and hollering," she said. "I'm so emotional right now. We were facing the loss of more than half of our wolf population in Idaho without this injunction, so this is fabulous news. This will enable the wolf population to remain stable and not be eradicated during the time that this lawsuit is reviewed, and that's the most important thing that we were hoping for."

Still, Ed Bangs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who led the wolf recovery effort, said in an interview from his office in Missoula, Mont., that the three-state wolf population had grown so successfully that delisting or hunts had no chance of threatening its survival.

"For an injunction, you have to show irreparable harm," Bangs said. "The hunting of wolves clearly wouldn't endanger threatened wolf populations. We thought our delisting was a very biologically sound package."

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AP writer Rebecca Boone in Boise contributed to this report.