[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7358-S7359]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. RISCH (for himself and Mr. Crapo):
  S. 3825. A bill to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to remove 
certain portions of the distinct population segment of the Rocky 
Mountain gray wolf from the list of threatened species or the list of 
endangered species published under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and Public 
Works.
  Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I come here today on behalf of myself and 
my colleague, Senator Crapo, from Idaho to introduce the State Wolf 
Management Act. This act as drawn is aimed at some particular issues we 
have in Idaho with the management of wolves, and that other adjoining 
States that share Idaho's boundaries have with the Federal Government.
  First of all, I want to thank the Governor of the great State of 
Idaho, the Honorable Butch Otter, for his assistance in crafting this 
bill. I can tell you, Governor Otter, as the chief executive of Idaho, 
his predecessor, who happens to be yours truly, and my predecessor, as 
Governors of the great State of Idaho have all joined in the effort to 
obtain delisting of the wolf in Idaho. That is particularly true as we 
attempt to wrest management of this particular species away from the 
Federal Government.
  What the act does is it identifies as a distinct population a segment 
of the gray wolf population. Specifically, it identifies this specific 
population in eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, in which there are 
few if any wolves, and the State of Montana and the State of Idaho, all 
of those States in which there are a lot of wolves and indeed are too 
many wolves.
  First of all, let me say, the official estimates, in 2008, for Idaho 
are that there were 846 wolves in Idaho, with 39 breeding pairs. 
Virtually everyone in the State agrees that estimate is very low. In 
the year 2010, again virtually everyone agrees there are well over 
1,000 gray wolves in Idaho and well over 39 breeding pairs.
  How did we get to where we are?
  Wolves have been gone from the State of Idaho and adjoining areas for 
many years. In 1995, someone--I cannot identify who--in their infinite 
wisdom, who lived back here on the banks of the Potomac River, decided 
we in Idaho needed wolves again.
  The State of Idaho was indeed not very happy about the decision. The 
chief executive of the State, the executive branch of the State, the 
legislative branch of the State, and the vast majority of Idahoans were 
absolutely opposed to reintroducing wolves back into the State of 
Idaho.
  After litigation, and after the usual things you go through, 
nonetheless, 34 wolves were captured in Canada and brought to the State 
of Idaho and introduced into the State of Idaho against the objections 
of almost everyone. Indeed, there was a group of people who did want to 
see wolves brought to Idaho, and they got their way.
  To give you a little bit of background as to what happened, we in the 
State of Idaho are very proud of our big game management. Under common 
law in this country, and indeed in England before this country, all 
wild game belonged to the sovereign. The United States of America is 
probably surprised to hear they are not the sovereign, that indeed the 
States are the sovereign. As a result of that, over the centuries--the 
couple of centuries we have been in existence as the United States of 
America--litigation after litigation has determined that indeed all 
wildlife in the State belongs to the sovereign; that is, the State in 
which they are located.
  Idaho has a long and proud history and culture of hunting and outdoor 
life. We have managed our wildlife to the point that we are getting--or 
had been getting--the maximum out of our wildlife for big game harvest 
every year. Before Europeans inhabited Idaho, there were very few deer 
and even less elk. Elk were a plains species. They were not a mountain 
species. After settlement of the State, the elk were pretty much 
removed from the plains and took up residence in the mountains, where 
they have done very well and adapted very well.
  Again, over the years, the premier species in Idaho, as determined by 
the people of the State of Idaho, has been elk. Elk are difficult to 
manage; that is, they are not as easy to manage as deer. They are not 
as prolific as deer. As a result, they require relatively intensive 
management.
  As a result, the State has broken into many different game units for 
elk, and each of these units is carefully managed by the fish and game 
department to determine the birthrate of the elk each year and the 
survival rate over the winter and a determination of how many elk can 
be harvested. As a result, we have had a robust and relatively stable 
population of elk in the State of Idaho.
  Fast forward to 1995. The Federal Government released its 34 wolves 
into the State of Idaho, and contrary to what some people believe, they 
are not vegetarians. Also contrary to what some people believe, they 
need to eat every day. And when they eat, they eat our elk.
  As a result, there has been considerable depredation on our elk herds 
and for that matter on domestic livestock. The domestic livestock 
losses are not large in number, unless, of course, it is your livestock 
they are preying on, of which a number of us in the livestock business 
have experienced losses in that regard.
  Back to the elk. We want to continue to manage our elk. We want to 
continue to manage our deer. Indeed, we manage a lot of big game 
species. We manage moose, we manage bears, we manage cats, we manage 
all big game in the State of Idaho and do a pretty decent job of that.

  On top of the Federal Government's introduction of these 34 wolves 
into Idaho, which have now exploded into 1,000 wolves, with regulations 
that at the outset were very, very intrusive, to the point where you 
couldn't shoot wolves--even if you found them attacking your livestock, 
it was unlawful to take a wolf. Of course, the regulations that were 
imposed on us by the Federal Government have created a considerable 
amount of animosity and bad blood.
  What we want at this point is the ability to manage the wolves just 
as we manage every other population of big game and animal species in 
Idaho. The fact is that the wolves are there. They are going to be 
there. We obviously made the effort at the outset to not have them. We 
did our best to keep them out. We lost that fight, so now we have to 
accept the fact that they are there. But the fact that they are there 
does not mean that we, in the sovereign State of Idaho, should not have 
the ability to manage our own game species.
  Recently, because the numbers have exploded in the amount that they 
have--when I was Governor, I pressed

[[Page S7359]]

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to start the delisting process, 
which happened on my watch. The start of the delisting happened on my 
watch as Governor. As time went on, my successor, Governor Otter, did 
an excellent job of continuing to press the case for delisting. After 
all, the Federal Government has absolutely no business in the State of 
Idaho dealing with wolves other than the hook it has of the Endangered 
Species Act. To argue that a species that has been introduced--34 of 
them--and then explodes to well over 1,000 is endangered simply flies 
in the face of not only science, but it also flies in the face of 
logic.
  Let me tell my colleagues what we were told and what we were promised 
by the Federal Government at the time they brought in the wolves. They 
told us that once we got to the point of 300 wolves and got to the 
point of 30 breeding pairs, the party was over and they would delist. 
Well, we reached that point in 3 years, and we have been trying to 
delist ever since. We got them delisted. The matter went to court. We 
actually had a hunting season last year. But now it has gone back to 
court, and, again, those who are trying to protect the number of 
wolves, to the great disadvantage of elk, won again, and they got the 
judge to order that the wolves be listed again in Idaho and Montana.
  That is as a result of a dispute the State of Wyoming also has with 
the Federal Government, and they have been unable to reach an agreement 
as to how wolves should be managed. The Federal Government, the Fish 
and Wildlife Service, and the Department of the Interior were perfectly 
happy with the plans from Idaho and Montana, but because they have been 
unable to settle with Wyoming, we now find ourselves at a tremendous 
disadvantage. This simply isn't fair.
  This bill will very simply turn management of the wolves back over to 
the State of Idaho unless and until the time that the Federal 
Government can again or can ever claim that they are an endangered 
species. When that happens, the State again will be subject to the 
lawsuits that will inevitably come if, indeed, they are endangered. But 
in the meantime, I will urge every Senator to vote for this bill. This 
is a States rights issue. We are a sovereign State. We are entitled to 
take over management of these wolves. I can promise everyone that the 
State of Idaho will do a substantially better job, a cheaper job, and a 
much more efficient job of managing the wolves in the State of Idaho 
than the Federal Government could ever do or will ever do, and we will 
be able to do it with due deference to all the other species in the 
State of Idaho.
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