Environmental reporter Daniel Jack-Chasan weighs in at Crosscut:

The last-minute budget deal that Democrats and Republicans worked out last Friday night may be, as President Obama said, "historic" for more reasons than one. Language in the legislation that may keep the federal government afloat "basically overturns the moral imperative that drove the passage of the Endangered Species Act," says Doug Honnold, managing attorney of Earthjustice's Northern Rockies office.

The language will "delist" wolves in Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and Utah — and will make that delisting unreviewable by the courts. Can Congress really do that? Yes, it can.

To understand the legislative language, you have to start with a little recent history. Everywhere but in Minnesota, wolves have been charter members of the endangered-species list. The government initially tried to delist all wolves in the northern Rockies, including the main populations in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. All three states had drawn up management plans. Wyoming's was clearly inadequate. Conservationists got an injunction against delisting. The government subsequently asked for and got a voluntary remand so that it could revise the proposal.

Read the rest of his excellent story HERE. Check my post from last week on Huckleberries online poll that asked the question:  “What scares you more: the Idaho Legislature in the Statehouse or wolves in the forest?” The legislators won, 74 percent to 10 percent.

---

---