Earthjustice

Just two days ago, InvestigateWest reported that environmentalists were unhappy with the Obama administration's barely tweaked version of a Bush-era rescue plan for critically endangered salmon of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The administration, including former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, who as commerce secretary is boss of the agency responsible for salmon  recovery, has said its updated plan is backed by "sound science."

So now environmentalists are asking: Who are these scientists, anyway? So far, no one's saying.

As part of its review process, the administration called on independent scientists to comment on the plan, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. But the names of these scientists have not yet been released. Gorman said he knew there had been some discussion about privacy issues, but he did not know how the situation was being resolved. He referred us to Fisheries Service contact David Miller in Washington, D.C., who has not yet returned an InvestigateWest phone call.

Save Our Wild Salmon, an alliance of salmon advocates including enviros, fishermen, scientists and others, has closely followed the Columbia Basin salmon story and recently released its own "Top 10" list of ways to improve the 2008 plan -- many of which did not make it into the updated version.

Natalie Brandon, communications director for Save Our Wild Salmon, said the group has asked repeatedly for the names of the scientists involved in the plan, and the analysis that led to their decision.

A coalition of environmentalists and tribal groups sued the U.S. State Department on Thursday for allegedly failing to assess the full environmental impact of Embridge Energy's project to build a pipeline to pump 450,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day from northern Alberta to refining facilities in Superior, Wisconsin.

The nonprofit law group Earthjustice filed the suit on behalf of The Indigenous Environmental Network, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club.

The suit filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California alleges that the State Department is ignoring the "serious environmental, climate, and human health impacts of tar sands oil" in a "departure from the Obama Administration's commitment to a clean energy future."

The State Department issued a permit for the Alberta Clipper pipeline on August 20th.  In its public statement, the department wrote:

The wolf hunt is on, for now, in Idaho. In fact, it begins today in some parts of the state.  A federal judge took no action at the on the  the last-minute injunction sought by environmentalists Monday, but said he would rule as a quickly as he could. Last year, the same judge, Donald Molloy, sided with environmentalists in a similar case, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Reactions:

"It's the endangered species that need to be protected, not the states' rights to kill wolves," said Doug Honnold of Earthjustice.

Michael Eitel of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency would keep monitoring the wolves and step in to return the species to the endangered list if warranted.

The season is scheduled to start today in parts of Idaho and later elsewhere in the state. Montana's season is set to begin Sept. 15. Business has been brisk. More than 9,000 hunters in Idaho bought wolf tags. Tags went on sale Monday in Montana, where hunters purchased almost 1,500 by 11 a.m., the Billings Gazette reported.

Meanwhile, the Helena Independent Record reports that wolves killed 120 adult male sheep in one attack on a Dillon-area ranch, the largest  known wolf kill in recent history. That compares with 111 sheep killed by wolves in Montana in all of 2008, according to wildlife officials. In this attack, confirmed by wildlife officials,  the wolves took out 120 purebred Rambouillet bucks that ranged in size from about 150 to 200 pounds, and were the result of more than 80 years of breeding.

Defenders of wolves stepped forward to block wolf hunting seasons in Idaho and Montana, claiming that the season is long, the quotas are high and the combined effect will limit the ability of the wolves to establish new territories.

"The hunting will further isolate the Yellowstone population," said Center for Biological Diversity spokesman Michael Robinson, one of the members of an environmental coalition filing the petition in federal court,according to the Missoulian. The coalition, which also includes Earthjustice, is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in order to reverse the federal agency's decision removing the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act in Montana and Idaho. Both states set up 2009 hunting seasons for wolves.

The injunction request asks that wolves be put back on endangered species status while the larger lawsuit is settled. To win that, the wolf advocates must show two things: That they are likely to win the larger case and that allowing a hunt in the meantime would do irreparable harm to the wolf population.

Dang it! Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has already said he was all set to get himself one of those wolf tags, as InvestigateWest earlier discussed.  But federal officials would advise him not to worry. They say they can meet environmentalists objections in court, and win.

Idaho has set its long-awaited wolf hunt quota, and at least one environmental group says it will seek an injunction to block the hunting, the Idaho Statesman reports. The state set the sport harvest at 220, and said the Nez Perce Tribe could take another 35 of Idaho's estimated 1,000 wolves. Montana at already has set its quota at 75 wolves, or about 15 percent of the state's population. The group Defenders of Wildlife has said it will seek to bar the Idaho hunt in court, and another group Earthjustice, in June filed a suit to put wolves back on the endangered species list.

"We believe that any level of hunting an imperiled wolf population is inappropriate," said Jenny Harbine, told the Statesman.

Earthjustice maintains that the region's population of 1,600 wolves is too small to support public hunting.

Federal authorities released a new policy for state control of wolves in April. Wyoming's wolves were left on the endangered species list, but Idaho and Montana got clearance to set their own rules for managing the animals. A story in the Missoulian quotes a local taxidermist as saying a lot of local folks will get the tags and be on the lookout for wolves when out hunting, but he's not expecting a rush of business.

"We're in the woods every weekend, but I only saw four wolves," Steve Denwell said, "although I saw tracks almost every time we went out. I think most people are going to have a (wolf) tag and if they see one while deer or elk hunting, they'll shoot it."