Will the New President Blink?...

Will Wolves in Idaho really be delisted?

The US Fish and Wildlife service released their news release yesterday and has submitted the documents with the new rules reflecting Wolf delisting to the Federal Register. Idaho, Montana and other states have worked hard for many years to follow the directions of the DOI to recover Wolves in our regions, just as we were "requested/required" to do by the USFWS.

One can question the introduction in the first place and how that happened, or question the way and reasons for the introduction and many other things... but at the end of the trail, we have met the conditions of delisting set by the feds by 5 times many years ago.

In fact, Idaho met the delisting requirements back in 2000 and now, for the second time, the USFWS will again be finally recognizing the successful recovery of the species... or are they?

I called the USFWS yesterday after the news release and found that by the time they submitted the documents outlining the new rules for delisting, it was reported back from the Federal Register that the publication date for those new rules would be Jan 27th. This was reportedly due to "the holiday shutdown" and the "inauguration shutdown" reducing the time needed to schedule the publication of the rules.

Why is Jan 27th an important date to Idaho? The decision to delist was made under the Bush Administration, but they will be gone and the new Obama Administration incoming on the 20th will assume the watch. It's typical for new administrations to put all new rules making on hold to ensure that the new rules are in step with the new administrations perspectives and directions.

Rules published in the Federal Register are typically effective 30 days from the date of publication, unless other timelines or dates are included within the publication. As of Jan 20th, the Obama Administration will have the ability to publish or not publish the new rules that have been submitted. They will also have the choice to hold the effective date, change the effective date or pull the delisting rules all together.

Will the new President surcome to groups like the Defenders of Wildlife (who, by the way, helped formulate the federally approved Idaho Wolf management plan) threats to sue or stop the delisting by any means or will the Obama administration finally recognize the success of the recovery and allow the states to manage our wildlife as agreed many years ago?

We will know on Jan 27th if the new rules are printed in the Federal Register or not... a keystone date for Idaho wildlife management decisions. If they are not printed, the Obama administration will have blinked and have left Idaho citizens once again pondering why we are on the receiving end of badly played wildlife politics.

What do you think? Will we see Wolves delisted or not?