Opinion ID: 159098
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Protection of Naturally Occurring Wolves

Text: The district court determined, at the behest of the Farm Bureaus and the Predator Project, that the Department must accord full endangered species protections to any naturally occurring wolf found within the experimental areas. 7 Accordingly, the district court held the final reintroduction rules, which provide 7 We note the Predator Project largely supports the government’s interpretation and implementation of the Endangered Species Act through the wolf reintroduction program. Its point of contention on appeal concerns “the management of Idaho’s naturally occurring wolves, and ... not ... the status of the released wolves in Idaho, and still less the treatment of released wolves in Yellowstone.” -25- that “[a]ll wolves found in the wild within the boundaries of [the experimental areas] after the first releases will be considered nonessential experimental animals,” 8 (1) constitute a “de facto ‘delisting’” of naturally occurring lone dispersers, and (2) illegally deny full Endangered Species Act protections to offspring of naturally dispersing wolves, and to offspring of naturally dispersing and introduced wolves, within the designated experimental areas. Wyoming Farm Bureau Fed’n, 987 F. Supp. at 1374-76. We believe this holding unnecessarily limits the administrative discretion and flexibility Congress intentionally incorporated into section 10(j), ignores biological reality, and misconstrues the larger purpose of the Endangered Species Act. Pursuant to section 10(j)(2)(B), 16 U.S.C. § 1539(j)(2)(B), the Secretary must, prior to authorizing a release, identify by regulation the population to be deemed experimental. As discussed above, this statutory requirement confers broad discretion to the Secretary to manage populations to better conserve and recover endangered species. Based on the facts (1) there were no reproducing wolf pairs and no pack activity within the designated experimental areas, (2) wolves can and do roam for hundreds of miles, and (3) it would be virtually 8 59 Fed. Reg. at 60266 (50 C.F.R. § 17.84(i)(7)(iii)); see also id. at 60261 (response to Comment 16). -26- impossible to preclude naturally occurring individual gray wolves from intermingling with the experimental population, 59 Fed. Reg. at 60256, 60261, the Secretary intentionally identified the experimental population as all wolves found within the experimental areas, including imported wolves and any lone dispersers and their offspring. The Department determined it could best manage the wolf reintroduction program to achieve species recovery in this manner. Id. at 60261. We find nothing in the Act that invalidates this approach by requiring the protection of individuals to the exclusion or detriment of overall species recovery, or otherwise limiting the Department’s flexibility and discretion to define and manage an experimental population pursuant to section 10(j). In particular, we do not read section 10(j)(1) to restrict the Secretary’s authority to identify an experimental population solely on the basis of animal origin as opposed to geographic location. While the language of section 10(j)(1), read in isolation, might suggest an experimental population can only be comprised of those particular animals physically relocated (and any offspring arising solely therefrom), such a narrow interpretation is not supported by the provision, or the Endangered Species Act, read as a whole. Indeed, section 10(j)(1) expressly references the Secretary’s broad discretion to identify and authorize the release of an experimental population under section 10(j)(2). Moreover, as illustrated -27- above, when drafting section 10(j) Congress deliberately provided the Secretary with the flexibility to address the specific circumstances of any given endangered population, including the authority to identify an experimental population “on the basis of location, migration pattern, or any other criteria that would provide notice as to which populations of endangered or threatened species are experimental.” H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 97-835, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. at 34 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 2875 (emphasis added). For these reasons, we interpret the plain language of section 10(j)(1) as an expression of Congress’ intent to protect the Secretary’s authority to designate when and where an experimental population may be established, not as a limitation on the Secretary’s flexibility. The restrictive interpretation the Predator Project and Farm Bureaus advocate could actually undermine the Department’s ability to address biological reality (i.e., wolves can and do roam for hundreds of miles and cannot be precluded from intermingling with the released experimental population), and thus handicap its ability to effectuate species recovery. The Endangered Species Act simply does not countenance that result. To the contrary, Congress’ overriding goal in enacting the Endangered Species Act is to promote the -28- protection and, ultimately, the recovery of endangered and threatened species. 9 While the protection of individual animals is one obvious means of achieving that goal, it is not the only means. It is not difficult to imagine that sound population management practices tailored to the biological circumstances of a particular species could facilitate a more effective and efficient species-wide recovery, even if the process renders some individual animals more vulnerable. However, neither Congress nor this court are equipped to make that type of species management decision. Recognizing that fact, Congress left such decisions to the Department. We conclude the Department reasonably exercised its management authority under section 10(j) in defining the experimental wolf population by location. 10 9 See H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 97-835, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. at 30 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2860, 2871 (“In enacting the Endangered Species Act, Congress recognized that individual species should not be viewed in isolation, but must be viewed in terms of their relationship to the ecosystem of which they form a constituent element. Although the regulatory mechanisms of the Act focus on species that are formally listed as endangered or threatened, the purposes and policies of the Act are far broader than simply providing for the conservation of individual species or individual members of listed species.” (Emphasis added.)). 10 As amici Environmental Defense Fund and others aptly point out: The wolf reintroduction is unusual only in that the source animals came from Canada, where the wolf is unprotected by the [Endangered Species Act]. In every other instance in which experimental populations have been established pursuant to section 10(j), the source animals were [Endangered Species Act]-protected -29-