I'm just interested in the topic as a whole. It's a very delicate topic and decision, you can send me a dm I'd you don't want to start a poo fight.
I'd like to think I'm a man of logic and though I stand by my views I'm always open to new information that is contrary to my beliefs if it's sound. Only a fool wouldn't be.
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I'll try to keep this as short as possible. The first meeting I ever attended on wolves was in the late 80's. There were wolves found in NW Montana, specifically the Glacier Park/Ninemile/Flathead areas. By the late 80's there were established packs in all of those areas. At the same time, wolf recovery was started, via scoping meetings. The established packs of wolves in NW Montana were protected via full protection under the ESA (Endangered Species Act). After the scoping period, the USFWS came up with a list of alternatives to help recover wolves in the core recovery area of ID/WY/MT.
The alternatives ranged from nothing, to full reintroduction with full protection under the ESA. During the entire process, the public absolutely was involved. At the time, there had never been more public comments received for a EIS. There were several open comment periods with dozens of public meetings. In all, there were over 160,000 public comments received, a vast majority of them in favor of reintroduction. The EIS was finalized in May of 1994, and the preferred alternative was to reintroduce, applying the 10(j) rule outlined in the ESA. That meant that the reintroduced population would be classified as "non-essential". What that did, was gave the States of ID, MT, and WY a lot more management authority.
Under 10(j), wolves were managed almost immediately, as in, wolves preying on livestock, etc. were shot. Kill permits were issued within a year or two of reintroduction to ranchers that were having trouble.
While all this was going on, the States were required to draft State management plans that were to be approved by the USFWS. The one thing, that would eventually bite the States in the ass, was that all three states had to approved plans for state management to happen. In hindsight, that was a huge problem, that I would caution any State to consider prior to ever agreeing to reintroduce any species. The States should be independent of one another, and not hitched to any other State.
Almost immediately, Montana and Idaho had plans in place that were approved by the USFWS. Wyoming had problems from the start, the biggest issue being the dual classification of wolves. They were considered trophy game in the recovery area, predator in the remainder of the State.
Also, under the EIS, minimum pack numbers were to be maintained as well as a minimum population in each State. Very quickly, the USFWS actually reduced the number of packs required for delisting, because the average pack size was much larger than anyone had anticipated.
The thing to keep in mind, is that wolves were already going to be recovered as they had naturally moved into Montana at least a decade prior to reintroduction. The reintroduction simply accelerated what was going to happen anyway, and also gave the States more management control under 10(j).
Once the pack numbers and population was met, delisting was started. The problem was Wyoming's plan was NOT an accepted plan and tied up delisting. Montana and Idaho suffered because of Wyoming's lack of an accepted plan. Finally, MT and ID had enough and asked Senators Jon Tester (MT) and Mike Simpson (ID) to introduce legislation that would remove wolves from the ESL and give control to the their States. They were successful, and the other part of the Simpson/Tester language that was important, is that there could be no lawsuits filed in response to the delisting.
Wyoming was left on its own, and rightfully so. The bull-headedness of the Wyoming Farm Bureau (who by the way filed the FIRST lawsuit in regard to reintroduction), and their lack of compromise on an acceptable plan is why the wolves are still listed here. The State agreed to certain conditions, and they simply can not ignore binding agreements with the Federal Government.
Since the Simpson/Tester rider, the States of Montana and Idaho have been successfully managing wolves, including hunting and trapping seasons.
Those are the facts of what happened. There are plenty of people that say, "the wolves were shoved down our throats by the Feds"...that is simply untrue. The Feds did exactly what they were required to do, and don't forget that a vast majority of public comments favored reintroduction. What did everyone expect to happen with that being the case? The only people to blame for the reintroduction moving forward, are those that didn't take the time to comment on the several open comment periods.
I also cant believe that anyone would make the claim that the Federal Government used the ESA illegally to reintroduce wolves. That's pure B.S., they followed the letter of the law during the entire process. Just because you don't agree with reintroduction and wolves, doesn't mean that the Feds didn't follow the law. If they had failed to follow the law, I can assure you that with the amount of scrutiny that the recovery has received, there would have been a legal consequences...there hasn't been any.
There is no doubt that the recovery was legal. There was no doubt that wolves were going to inhabit the West again, they had already established packs in Montana. All the recovery did was speed up the inevitable, and also give more management options along the way.
I view wolves the same as any other animal. I agree with State's having management control. I'm in favor of hunting and trapping them.
What I find tiresome is the sky is falling and they killed all the elk and moose. That's pure chit too. Every single State that has wolves right now, I can kill more in every one of those States NOW than I could prior to reintroduction. How anyone can make the claim that wolves have wiped out elk, when they can legally kill 2 elk a year in Montana and Idaho, and 3 elk a year in Wyoming...is a complete mystery.
Wolves have their place on the landscape as long as they're managed...and they are.
I'm also not denying that there were a lot of bumps along the way in the recovery process, but that's life. Something as complex as this was bound to have some problems, nobody with a firing brain cell thought any differently. I knew from the get-go there would be problems, but frankly, the biggest problem (Wyoming playing Marlboro man), was not what I anticipated would be the biggest problem for delisting.
