This decision overturns a lower court’s 1997 ruling that the 1995 and 1996 Yellowstone wolf reintroductions were illegal. The district court’s ruling had called for removal of all the wolves and their offspring, an action that pleased the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which was behind the lawsuit, but that Defenders of Wildlife called a virtual death sentence. Today AFBF President Dean Kleckner, who called for removing the wolves, lost his job in an election.
Said Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife. "It’s been two long years since the district court’s ruling because of the obstinacy of the AFBF and Kleckner, but ironically he lost his job on the same day the Farm Bureau lost the suit."
Defenders President Schlickeisen noted that “The wolves are doing better than ever expected . They are reproducing, hunting natural prey, and doing their part to return one of America’s greatest treasures to its healthy, natural state.” More than 300 wolves are now found in the region.
HOME AT LAST!
On Sunday, April 9th, 30 million Americans watched a CBS "60 minutes" exposé on the American Farm Bureau Federation presenting striking evidence that the leadership of the nation's most powerful farm organization has abandoned the family farmers they allegedly support while pursuing a pro-agribusiness and anti-environmental agenda.
Defenders decided to find out more about this politically powerful organization and make its findings available to the public. The results were published in an in-depth report which concludes that the Farm Bureau has created a wide-ranging business conglomerate with a strong anti-environmental and extremist political agenda. Despite claiming that it is the "voice of the American farmer," only a small fraction of the organization's "members" are actually farmers.
Today, the policies the Farm Bureau advances and its myriad business operations are crippling the farmer, rural America and the environment. More than 180 organizations have joined Defenders in calling for a congressional investigation into the leadership and business practices of the American Farm Bureau. We need your help to hold them accountable.
Defenders further calls for investigation into charges that the Farm Bureau leadership also misrepresents its motivation to Congress and the American taxpayer by exploiting the farmer image to win, from Congress, non-profit privileges that shield them from an estimated $61.75 million annually in federal income tax. We urge congress to complete the process started a generation ago and protect rural America and its heritage.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please take a minute and send a free e-mail to your Senators and Representative calling for a congressional investigation into the American Farm Bureau Federation's leadership and business practices.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to the web, simply click on the link below which will take you to the DEN Action Center web site:
ALASKA WOLVES
Turning a deaf ear to the will of the Alaskan public, the Governor and the State Fish and Game Department, the state legislature has reinstated land-and-shoot hunting of wolves. This terrible practice of using airplanes to track and kill wolves has been banned since 1996, when a citizens’ initiative stopped it with a 60% vote.
With the first snow fall, hunters can now spot wolves from the air, buzz them to exhaustion, and then land and kill them. During the winter of 1993-4 alone more than 1600 wolves were killed in this manner.
Defenders of Wildlife is determined to again halt this hunting practice. Defenders is raising funds for the Alaska-based Wolf Management Reform Coalition. This group of sportsmen and conservationists has filed a referendum application to repeal this land and shoot bill using the November election. The first step is to gather 23,000 signatures (10% of the registered voters in the last statewide election) before August 1.
Related Information:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is seeking public comments on its proposal to reclassify wolf populations in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act. The proposal calls for downlisting wolves from endangered to threatened in several regions of the country. The reintroduced wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park, central Idaho and the southern Arizona - New Mexico borderlands would retain their experimental, nonessential status. In California and Nevada, promising areas for natural recolonization, wolves would be delisted entirely and have no further protections under the ESA.
To gauge public response to the proposal, FWS is holding public hearings and accepting comments by mail, e-mail and fax. Don't miss this opportunity to let FWS know that you want it to complete the job of saving wolves and provide for the continued recovery of wolf populations in suitable habitat throughout the lower 48 states.
DOWNLOAD A "SPEAK UP FOR WOLVES" FLIER!
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In February, a Montana federal court reversed a lower court ruling that wolf recovery in Yellowstone and Idaho was illegal. The reversal will allow the wolf population to remain and flourish. Later in the year, wolves were upgraded from endangered to threatened, which recognizes the species' phenomenal recovery and opens opportunities for recovery in New England, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and later, possibly, in California and Nevada. |
Defenders of Wildlife today announced that it has paid $62,190 in 2000 to ranchers for livestock losses caused by wolves and grizzly bears in the Northern Rockies and the Southwest.
Since Defenders started its private compensation programs (the wolf compensation program began in 1987 and the Grizzly Compensation Trust in 1997), it has paid ranchers approximately $206,088.72.
According to Defenders of Wildlife Program Associate Minette Johnson, "The good news is that both wolf and grizzly bears are expanding their ranges and numbers outside of national parks and designated wilderness areas. As they do so, it’s predictable that higher livestock losses will occur. Even so, the livestock losses in 2000 are still well below the level that the Environmental Impact Statement predicted for wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone. We seek to promote landowner tolerance for large predators by reducing to acceptable levels the economic loss these animals may sometimes cause."
Here’s how Defenders’ programs work. If a rancher believes a grizzly bear or wolf has killed livestock, he or she notifies the appropriate state, tribal or federal agency. A trained specialist, usually on the scene within 24 hours, investigates to determine if wolves or grizzly bears were responsible for the death of the livestock. They rely on necropsy techniques (all predators have unique styles for killing their prey) and the presence of tracks, hair or scat. If the investigator verifies that wolves or grizzly bears killed the livestock, a report is sent to Defenders of Wildlife.
A Defenders’ staff member from the region then calls the rancher to discuss the incident, explain our compensation program and agree on a payment amount.
In nine out of ten cases, Defenders of Wildlife pays what the livestock producer suggests. In case of a difference of opinion, the program relies on county extension agents to determine fair market value, but that rarely happens.
Defenders tries to send a check to the rancher within two weeks of receiving verification of a livestock loss.
To stay current on hot topics in wildlife conservation, subscribe to DENlines, Defenders of Wildlife’s electronic update and action alert network.
ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE: "TOO WILD TO WASTE" from the National Wildlife Federation
There just simply are some places too precious to waste. The National Wildlife Federation and its supporters believe that Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them and they are mobilizing all who share this belief to oppose any proposals to open this unique place to oil exploration.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge represents the last remaining parcel of untouched Arctic coastline, 95 percent of which has been impacted to some degree by human activity.
The 19.6 million acre Arctic National Wilflife Refuge is among the wildest, most pristine places in the United States. The 1.5 million acres of its coastal plain being proposed for oil exploration are the most biologically productive part of the Refuge. A total of 135 species of birds use the coastal plain as well as more than 100 additional species of wildlife. It is the central calving ground for the Porcupine caribou herd, which has been a primary source of sustenance for the area's native people for 10,000 years. It is the most important denning habitat for polar bears, wolves, grizzly and brown bears, as well as the year-round home to muskoxen, arctic foxes and wolverines.
Oil interests insist that modern-day drilling operations are much more environmentally friendly than in the past but oil exploration requires the construction of a huge industrial complex, complete with roads, gravel pits, refineries and other infrastructure. How could this NOT deface our national treasure and prove disruptive and dangerous to the wildlife?
Scientists say contact with spilled oil can be fatal, because petroleum destroys the life-giving insulating ability of animal fur. Bears have also died from ingesting the "anti-freeze" used to transport oil through pipelines at sub-zero temperatures.
Polar bear mothers are especially sensitive to human activity, and, when disturbed by noise from aircraft, construction, traffic, and drilling, may abandon their dens – and their defenseless cubs – to deadly cold and starvation.
Proponents of the drilling assert that the extraction of the oil would address the problems of the 'so-called' energy crisis in this country. However, even if drilling began tomorrow, it would be years before a drop would hit the market. The United States is in dire need of a long-term energy policy that includes measures for alternative sources of clean, renewable energy as well as improved vehicle efficiency standards.
A recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey indicated a production potential ranging from zero to 4 billion barrels that MIGHT be recoverable would satisfy U.S. demand for 120 days! It would take 7 to 10 years for any of that oil to come to market. The Bush administration claims that drilling in the Arctic could help end the electricity shortage in California. However, the conservation experts tell us that oil accounts for only one percent of California's power generation. (Defenders Magazine 2001)
The first attempts to push Arctic drilling will emerge in the form of a federal budget resolution and as a component of an energy bill to be introduced in the Senate soon. Please, contact your senators and urge them to oppose the drilling. Click here for more information and to send a message to the President.
Algonquin Provincial Park is considered Canada's Yellowstone. Thousands of wildlife lovers from all over the world visit the park each year just to have an opportunity to participate in the park's famous 'public howl with the wolves' events.
Inside the park, the wolves are protected. But when they follow their prey outside the park's borders during winter, hunters and trappers can kill as many as they want and they do because wolf hides fetch as much as $200 each. Pelt-for-profit hunters and trappers have been taking as many as 30-40 a year. And as a result of this slaughter, the Algonquin wolf population has declined by a staggering 50 percent since the 1960s!
The Algonquin wolves were thought to be a subspecies of the Canadian gray wolf. But, preliminary scientific evidence suggests that the Algonquin wolf possesses a genetic trait that is unique to the endangered red wolf in the southeastern United States. It would be such a shame to lose these special wolves when we still have so much to learn from them and so many people derive so much enjoyment from them.
Defenders' position is that hunting and trapping should be totally banned year-round outside Algonquin Provincial Park's borders to prtoect the wolves when they follow their prey outside the park. Defenders is calling for "no-kill zones" or safe areas for the Algonquin wolves in the territory surounding the park to help ensure the wolves' long-term suvival.
My Representative in the U.S. House, Tom Osborne, voted to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and approve a seriously flawed energy bill. Late Wednesday, the House ignored the will of the American public and passed an energy bill (by a vote of 240-189) that lays out the red carpet in our cherished public lands to the oil and gas industry. The ultimate injury is that the bill authorizes drilling in our greatest wildlife sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Despite the tremendous efforts of Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Nancy Johnson (R-CT), an amendment offered by these two Arctic Refuge champions that would have prevented drilling in the refuge, failed by a vote of 222 to 206. Blame for passage of this irresponsible plan that will destroy our greatest wildlife sanctuary, falls squarely on the shoulders of the Republicans and the 36 Democrats who voted against the amendment.
December 16, 2001
In the coming months, Defenders will rely on the leadership and support of our Wildlife Guardians to help stop snowmobile wolf slaughter. Even though most Alaskans do not support using high-speed snowmobiles to hunt, chase and kill wolf packs, powerful anti-wolf groups are committed to legalizing this practice.
The Alaska Board of Game, the governing body that makes decisions about such regulations, is almost entirely made up of predator control advocates. So it is already legal in many areas to hunt wolves using snowmobiles or the limits placed on this activity is minimal.
Defenders has been able to open a new office in Anchorage to use as the headquarters in monitoring proposals and nominations to the Board of Game. They can publicize anti-wolf proposals in order to mobilize public support for the wolves, attend meetings and testify against anti-wildlife measures and support pro-wildlife nominations to the Board.
Defenders was instrumental in banning same-day land-and-shoot hunting of wolves in 1996 and again last year when the Alaska legislature reinstated the measure. Now, anti-wolf hunters are using snowmobiles instead of airplanes. Your support can make a critical difference in the efforts to save Alaska's wolves. Defenders succeeded against anti-wolf groups once and, with your help, they can again!
April 19, 2002
In a huge victory for the American people, the Senate yesterday voted 54 to 46 to reject an amendment to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The amendment, sponsored by Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) would have allowed oil drilling in the 1.5 million acre coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. The coastal plain is often referred to as the American Serengeti because of the abundant wildlife which uses the coastal plain. The vote came after months of working by drilling advocates to append a provision to allow drilling in the Arctic Refuge to the Senate Energy bill. In the final tally, 8 Republicans joined 45 Democrats and one Independent to help block the proposal.
Sacramento Bee editorial (4/19/02)
"Now that the Senate has removed the centerpiece of the president's supply-side policy, where do Bush and Congress go? This same Senate has refused to attack the problem from the demand side, by forcing automakers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles. Bush hasn't supported this approach either. Yet inevitably, this is where the policy fight must be waged, and won. It's the only way for the country to better control its energy destiny. . ."
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), praising Senate vote to protect Arctic Refuge, press release (4/18/02) 4/30/02 Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton-the same official who argued that the Endangered Species Act is unconstitutional-wants to prematurely remove wolves in the Northern Rockies, Idaho and Minnesota from the endangered species list. Defenders needs your help in preventing Secretary Norton from making decisions that will cause irreparable harm to wolf families. With your help, we will prepare our legal team for the long battle ahead, reach out to and inform other Americans who care about wildlife, recruit more "Wolf Guardians" and alert the press about these attacks on our wolves. Please go to Save the Wolves and sign our petition. Updated May 15, 2002 Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002 Pages by "snowshoe"
WOLF PUPS IN DANGER!
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