Howling up the wrong tree …

Inter Lake editorial

Here we go again. Team Obama is proceeding with delisting wolves in the Northern Rockies in the same fashion that the Bush administration did, prompting promises of litigation.

"We are outraged and disappointed that Secretary (Ken) Salazar has chosen to push the same, terrible Bush administration plan for wolf delisting just six weeks into President Obama's administration," sputtered Roger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife. "We all expected more from the Obama administration, but Defenders of Wildlife will now move to sue Secretary Salazar as soon as possible."

That's a shame. The Obama administration could not easily reverse course on delisting wolves, mainly because the rapidly expanding Northern Rockies population has irrefutably exceeded recovery goals for six years straight and Montanans are demanding that the state assume management over wolves.

Defenders and other delisting opponents often insist that 'science" should be the sole guiding light in the matter of delisting, and that politics and public opinion are completely irrelevant. But their purity is betrayed when they hint at expecting different treatment from Democrats, saying things like, "We all expected more from the Obama administration."

Politics and public opinion do matter when it comes to wolves, a highly controversial species that will rely on some degree of public acceptance, with a good-faith understanding that they are being managed under a state plan.

We anticipate the sentiments of Montana citizens will be amplified when the Montana Legislature passes a resolution calling for the vigorous defense of delisting wolves. The bill passed the Senate 48-0 and if it gets unanimous support in the House, it will be a clear statement of the will of the people.

But even then, this issue is destined to be hashed out in court.

It appears that a major sticking point for Defenders and other potential litigants is that the delisting applies to Montana and Idaho but not Wyoming, a deviation from the original intent that delisting must apply to all three states.

Wolf proponentss contend the delisting proposal "fails to adequately address biological concerns about the lack of genetic exchange" among wolves in the Northern Rockies.

It's as if Montana and Idaho wolves are all on their own, depending mightily on Wyoming wolves for their long-term survival, or vice versa. But that's hardly the case.

This argument of interconnectedness always seems to exclude the very real and documented connections between Northern Rockies wolves and thousands of wolves in Canada. And don't forget that the thriving population of Canadian wolves is located in provinces with incredibly liberal wolf hunting regulations that make Montana's proposed quota-based hunt look like a wolf protection program by comparison.

Montana should pull out all the stops, and use whatever resources are necessary, to vigorously defend the delisting proposal. This matter must come to an end.

Good news came to Northwest Montana this week when Plum Creek announced the recall of 140 workers to its mill in Columbia Falls, which had been shut down on Jan. 8.

The opportunity came about because of an increase in the price of pine boards, but in a county with 11.3 percent unemployment, that kind of good news should be savored.

It also should spur our local representatives to work even harder to make the business climate friendly for growth. As Joe Unterreiner at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday, "jobs must come first."