Following the April 2009 delisting of wolves, Idaho authorized a hunt of up to 220 wolves and Montana authorized a hunt of up to 75 wolves per season. The anti-hunting groups sued to reverse the delisting and asked Judge Donald Molloy, of the U.S. District Court for Montana, to halt the scheduled hunts on an emergency basis.

SCI is participating in the case to defend the wolf delisting and filed a brief in opposition to preliminary injunction. SCI argued that the delisting was proper, and that Montana and Idaho’s limited hunts would not harm the wolf population, which is many times the number deemed necessary for continued recovery. SCI included with their brief expert testimony about the state of Alaska’s wolf harvests and the difficulties Alaska has had with managing its wolf population despite large bag limits and long seasons.

SCI President Larry Rudolph said “SCI continues to lead the way for the hunting community in efforts to keep the recovered wolves of the Rocky Mountains where they belong – off the endangered species list. The states can and will effectively manage the wolf, as demonstrated by their establishing reasonable and well-regulated wolf hunts. SCI recognizes that a difficult battle lies ahead. Our lawyers are already hard at work to meet that challenge.” The judge’s ruling offers an immediate victory for Montana and Idaho’s efforts to manage their wolf populations and for the hunting community’s interest in protecting the wild ungulate populations that are feeling the impact of the growing wolf populations.

Unfortunately, Judge Molloy’s ruling is only a temporary one and it foreshadows an uphill battle in the ongoing effort to defend the legality of the delisting. To make this victory permanent, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), SCI and all of those who support the delisting will need to convince the judge that the FWS has authority to delist Montana and Idaho’s wolves, while leaving Wyoming’s wolves on the endangered species list.

SCI will stay involved to defend the delisting on the merits. Until the case is resolved on the merits, the Idaho hunt, which began on September 1, and the Montana hunt, which will begin on September 15, will proceed under state law. Thanks in part to the efforts of SCI, hunters in these states can now continue to participate in this important wildlife management activity.

Contact
Nelson Freeman
Safari Club International(202) 543 – 8733, nfreeman@safariclub.org

Senator Salazar is currently a member of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and has been a consistent pro-sportsman vote since he came to Washington, D.C. in 2004. With this appointment, President-Elect Obama has made the logical choice of an Interior Secretary who understands the sportsmen’s legacy of hunting and conservation on America’s public lands.

“We are pleased that President-Elect Obama has resisted the pressure from anti-hunting groups to name an anti-hunting extremist to this important post,” said SCI President Merle Shepard. “Senator Salazar’s pro-hunting votes over the past four years in Washington, and his support for access to federal lands for hunting throughout his entire career in Colorado will prove to be invaluable for sportsmen and women during this Administration.”
 
Shepard continued, “SCI looks forward to working with Senator Salazar in the Obama Administration to make sure the hunter’s voice is heard on every issue that affects hunting, hunters or science-based wildlife management.”
 
Contact:
Nelson Freeman
Governmental Affairs and Public Relations
Safari Club International
(202) 543 – 8733
Nfreeman@safariclub.org

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/story?columnist=swan_james&id=3654033

SCI President Merle Shepard is a member of the Sporting Conservation Council (SCC), a federal advisory committee chartered to advise the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture on wildlife and hunting issues.  He said the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy was the first time in one hundred years that a sitting President convened a meeting to address the challenges facing conservation and our hunting heritage and only the third time that a nationwide wildlife policy was considered. 

SCI’s Ron Arendt, Jeanne Beutecale, John Boretsky, Mike Christensen, Jeremy Drew, John Eichinger, Nelson Freeman, Larry Johns, Mark LaBarbera, Sven Lindquist and Bill Moritz were among the near 600 participants representing wildlife and hunting conservation organizations, the outdoor industry, landowners and local, state, tribal and federal resource manager who discussed what is necessary to ensure sustainable wildlife populations and promote our nation’s hunting heritage.

“Through the leadership of this Administration we were charged with identifying our community’s greatest challenges and outlining common-sense solutions that can be embraced by a broad spectrum of stakeholders,” stated Bob Model, Chairman of the SCC. He said, “Their legacy is starting the process and now it is our opportunity to be the bridge to carry these recommendations forward and ensure that they are implemented. The Conference that concluded here today was by no means the culmination of a process it is in fact the beginning of our work for the next decade and beyond.”

One of the greatest barriers identified by the hunting community is access to quality hunting opportunities and one of the recommended solutions to that issue was carried forward by the Conference’s keynote speaker. During the closing session of the Conference, Vice President Dick Cheney announced a new incentive payment through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to landowners who allow public hunting access on their property. Landowners who are enrolled in CRP will now be eligible for a $3 per acre incentive if they sign on to their state’s hunting access program; the incentive is expected to open an additional 7 million acres of quality wildlife habitat for hunting.

“Without access to places to hunt, there will be an erosion of people who go hunting – this is one of the most fundamental issues we face today,” commented David Nomsen Chairman of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners, of which SCI is a member. He said, “Enhancing a program like CRP that has been so successful at protecting critical wildlife habitat by encouraging landowners to open that land for hunting creates a win-win-win situation for private landowners, habitat conservation and hunter access.”

Over the course of the last year, the Sporting Conservation Council and members of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners have worked closely with other experts in the wildlife conservation community, the shooting and hunting industry, state and federal management agencies, and congressional leaders to outline major issues facing wildlife and hunting and to make recommendations to address these challenges. The issue analysis and recommendations are documented in a series of white papers that formed the foundation for a preliminary ten-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Plan that was discussed at the Conference. LaBarbera, Moritz and Shepard also served on the task forces that developed the white papers. The goal of the Conference was to ground-truth the action plan and to allow participants to take ownership of the implementation.

“We believe this has been an inclusive process and that the action plan is something that will carry forward through the next decade and beyond, no matter who is in the White House or controlling Congress or state houses,” remarked Jeff Crane, Vice Chairman of the Sporting Conservation Council and President of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “We are grateful for the leadership of this Administration in starting the discussions and ‘teeing up’ the action plan, but the success of this plan is dependent on all those who care about wildlife and the great outdoors, in particular the wildlife and hunting community and sportsmen in general, embracing the recommendations and carrying it forward.”

The Sporting Conservation Council (SCC) and the wildlife conservation community have been important partners with the Administration on developing the Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Plan. In order to ensure their continued involvement in the implementation of the action plan, Vice President Cheney called on Congress to reauthorize the SCC for a ten-year term.

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The statement in our logo above isn’t just an empty platitude, it’s significance was amply borne out by the effort of the Alaska and Kenai Chapters of SCI, as well as our sister chapters throughout the world.  The lion’s share of resources and effort that went into the winning strategy on Ballot Measure 2 this past August came from SCI, making it the undisputed leader in protecting the freedom to hunt of all Americans.

Those from Alaska reading this know we had already lost two similar campaigns in the past.  This campaign was SCI Alaska Chapter’s first major foray into the issue.  Following up on their success on the bear baiting initiative, SCI Alaska Chapter took the lead in organizing the effort to defeat the anti-hunters again this year.  Many of Alaska’s conservation groups joined with us in this effort, but in the end it was SCI’s financial resources and talent that made the difference.

Money is the mother’s milk of campaigns.  Without it you usually don’t have much of a chance of winning.  SCI funding allowed us to hire a professional consulting firm and do the requisite polling to establish who our likely allies were among voters and what our message should be.  Such a professional effort paid off in spades the night of the election as we waited with baited breath for the results.  When the first numbers flashed up on the screen at election central in Anchorage, none of us could believe our eyes.  We were not only winning, we were kicking their (anti-hunters) butts.

I cannot find the words to describe our gratitude to the SCI Family for this victory.  When the dust settled and the final accounting of our victory was assessed, SCI, its chapters and its members donated over 85% of the funding for this campaign.  Over 85 chapters and individuals contributed including several chapters from outside the country.  There are many groups out there who deserve our thanks, as well as our support, for they too are in the battle to support hunting, but no other one group can ever contest us for the statement in our logo, ‘First for Hunters’.

Dunn (Eddyville, Iowa), who is coming off a bronze medal win at the “Good [...]

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