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. # # # 95-002