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:
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.