Get Involved with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition

Yellowstone Ecosystem Action Alert

Backcountry Roadless Lands in Idaho Threatened by Roads

and the Desctruction They Bring. Take Action Now.

Last Chance to Comment on Wolf Delisting

Dear Supporter,


	Snowdrift Mountain, in the Meade Peak Roadless Area.
	Act Today! This area doesn't have any roads, and doesn't need any.

The Forest Service’s proposal in 2001 to protect the backcountry roadless areas on National Forests through the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was the most widely supported rule in the history of federal rulemaking. Its replacement by a state-by-state petition process was the most widely opposed. Despite the fact that the 2001 rule has recently been reaffirmed by the courts (see news article), the administration continues to move ahead with its plans to devolve the management of federally owned roadless areas to the state level, and weaken the protections demanded by the American people at large.

In September 2006, Idaho submitted a petitioned the Forest Service under the administration's questionable process. The Idaho petition would remove protection for more than 381,000 acres of roadless lands within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. With your help we can let the Forest Service and the State of Idaho know that there are better choices and a better future for these lands and the wildlife and the communities who depend on them.

Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
Protect Greater Yellowstone's Wolves

The Fish and Wildlife Service must ensure that the state plans are based on sound management principles and grounded in sustaining wolves' biological recovery. We can have a future in which the three states in the GYE don't merely put wolves in their tourism ads, but acknowledges that they are part of the areas' wildlife heritage. The residents of those states can then find a way to have both ownership of, and responsibility for, living with wolves.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comment on a proposal to remove the Northern Rockies population of the grey wolf from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana. Tell the Service via email at WesternGrayWolf@fws.gov (include RIN number 1018- AU53 in the subject line) that:

State management plans must:

1. Treat wolves as a wildlife species. Management of their numbers should be based on ensuring that the biological recovery continues. Taking actions to reduce wolf numbers to some arbitrary level is not sound wildlife management.

2. Management should be based on using the right tool for a given situation. This means that lethal control should not be the first and only option for livestock conflicts and that shooting all the members of a wolf pack when there is a conflict is not necessary and is counterproductive.

3. As the states take over management, they should base wolf management decisions on appropriate wildlife science. This means being honest about all of the impacts on big game herds, including energy development, disease, drought and habitat loss and not just blaming wolves for changes in herd numbers in some places.

Email the Fish and Wildlife Service today:

WesternGrayWolf@fws.gov

or postal mail:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Western Gray Wolf Recovery Coordinator
585 Shepard Way
Helena, MT 59601

Read it online! GYC's Spring 2007 Newsletter is available now.

GYC's 24th Annual Meeting, this year in Cody, Wyoming! Register Online today, or visit our website to find out about speakers, meals, agenda, fieldtrips, and lodging.

(406) 586-1593

Update your email address and other information.

Unsubscribe from future GYC emails Here.