FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1995                           (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

FEDERAL COURT REJECTS REQUEST TO HALT WOLF REINTRODUCTION PROGRAM

     On January 3, 1995, a federal district court in Wyoming
rejected a request by the American Farm Bureau Federation to stop
the Department of the Interior from carrying out its plan to
reintroduce the gray wolf into Yellowstone National Park and
central Idaho.  

     The Farm Bureau, in conjunction with the Mountain States
Legal Foundation, has challenged the legality of the plan, and
argued that it will suffer severe economic losses if the wolves
are introduced because the wolves will destroy their livestock. 
The Farm Bureau and Mountain States asked the district court to
prohibit Interior from going forward with the plan until the
legal challenge is resolved.

     In denying the request, the district court found that the
Farm Bureau had failed to prove their claim that the
reintroduction of wolves will result in irreparable injury to
Farm Bureau members.  The court found that livestock losses from
wolf attacks are expected to be minimal when compared with other
causes of depredation, and that such losses would not cause
irreparable harm to plaintiffs' business interests.  On the
whole, the court found that plaintiffs' claims of injury were
speculative and anecdotal.

     Interior plans to begin the process for reintroduction in
order to maximize the chances for breeding this winter.  The
reintroduction will involve the capture of thirty wolves from the
wild in Canada.  Fifteen of the wolves will be placed in holding
pens in Yellowstone for several weeks to get them acclimated to
their surroundings before they are released; the other fifteen
will be "hard released" into a National Forest in central Idaho. 

     The wolf reintroduction program represents the culmination
of a twenty year process attempting to recover the species in an
area from which it was systematically eliminated.  "In
reintroducing wolves, the United States' goal is to return a
threatened or endangered species to its natural place in the
ecosystem in a manner consistent with scientific principles which
will allow the wolves to exist in harmony with their human
neighbors," said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for
the Environment and Natural Resources Division, which represented
the federal defendants along with the United States Attorney's
Office for the District of Wyoming.

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95-002