14 DAY TRIAL // A federal court decided to neglect conservationists' initiative of protecting wolves in Montana and Idaho. Their strategy of stopping hunts in these two states was rejected by the judge, but the decision isn't final.
People and organizations that try to protect these creatures still have a chance to obtain a positive verdict next month, in court.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is one the main participants that are not pleased with the court's decision.
The organization, supported by other groups and individuals, struggles to restore the balance by including wolves in the Endangered Species Act.
It seems that the number of wolves has significantly decreased, after in those two states individuals have engaged their efforts in campaigns which managed to reduce the number of these creatures throughout activities such as hunting, trapping and poisoning.
On the other hand, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was unable to compete with these practices.
The organization managed to add only 100 wolves to the already existing population from the Northern Rockies in the mid-1990s.
As a result, now officials who protect wolves say these animals face extinction, unless proper measures are taken into consideration.
The two states show no mercy. The protest of ranchers and commercial outfitters that blames wolves made Idaho consider reducing the population by 80%, while Montana wants to get rid of 40% of its total number of such animals.
The organizations that contest such future projects affirmed that the balance of the ecosystem is already fragile, due to the fact that 200 wolves were killed, out of a total number of 1,300 and 1,600.
Because those two states seem to take matters into their own hands, conservationist seem very upset by their strategy of selling approximately 37, 000 hunting permits that will empower people to kill these animals using high-powered rifles.
The two states are now actually applying a court's previous decision, that allowed the Congress in April to take wolves out of the list of endangered species, the one and only legal regulation that stopped hunters and poachers from massively killing wolfs.
Conservationist still seem to have faith in their ability to change the present situation. The only issue is, in their opinion, wolf population will still suffer until the next verdict is pronounced.
"But, unfortunately, this means wolves will be hunted and trapped in Idaho and hunted in Montana for at least another three weeks," declared Wild Rockies Alliance head, Michael Garrity.