Wildlife Official Admits Mistakes During Search Investigation Of Wolf Killing Adds Fire To ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protest In Boise

The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service admitted on Friday that her agents made mistakes earlier this week in serving a search warrant on an elderly Salmon rancher as part of their investigation into January’s killing of a Canadian wolf.

During a meeting with members of the state congressional delegation, Service Director Mollie Beattie “did not deny claims by Lemhi County commissioners and Sheriff Brett Barsalou that the rancher, Gene Hussey, may have been intimidated and that Barsalou was not consulted,” according to a statement.

While the three agents did not draw their weapons or use physical force, Beattie said they should have been more cooperative with local law enforcement.

Her statements during the half-hour session with the congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., came as between 50 and 100 people rallied in front of the state Capitol in support of Idaho’s loggers, miners, ranchers and farmers and then began a “Freedom Convoy” to Salmon.

“I’m 100 percent behind you,” Gov. Phil Batt assured them, declaring that the state and its congressional delegation are committed to making the federal government abide by promises that it will cooperate with state and local officials, not try to confound them.

“If they are going to come in here to Idaho, they’re going to have to work with local authorities,” the governor said.

The rally took place on the Capitol steps, with a log truck, concrete mixer and bulldozer parked behind the crowd.

The convoy was sparked by the Jan. 9 decision of U.S. District Judge David Ezra in Hawaii that threatened to close down all logging, mining and grazing in six of the state’s national forests because of technical flaws in planning for the preservation of endangered salmon.

More than 800 jobs in the Challis and Salmon areas were threatened until the order, sought by environmental groups, was first stayed and finally dissolved earlier this week.

Lt. Gov. Butch Otter, who also attended the rally, encouraged the crowd to continue its drive for use of public lands.

“In the cowboy world, we’ve got a saying: ‘Don’t say ‘whoa’ in a mudhole,”’ Otter said. “Just because they backed off on those court orders doesn’t mean we’re out of the mudhole. Don’t say whoa.”

Batt and rally organizer Lew Work both said it was ridiculous for a judge thousands of miles away to make decisions directly affecting the livelihoods of Idahoans.

Steve Bliss, of Northwest Timber Workers, said federal regulations are strangling his industry.

“We’re tired of seeing our jobs go away and our mills close,” he said. Today, he said, private timber land is in better shape than public.

“That’s because they (public lands) are being managed by public opinion today, instead of what’s good for the forest,” he said.

But the rally, intended to open a celebration of the end of that threat, took on a heated tone in response to the controversy over the Fish and Wildlife Service’s handling of the search of Hussey’s ranch. The search was part of a probe into the shooting of one of the 15 Canadian wolves several days after they were reintroduced into central Idaho.

A Fish and Wildlife statement Friday said agents decided to search for the bullet that shot the wolf, or shell casings, after laboratory studies showed the wolf didn’t kill the dead newborn calf found beside it. The calf apparently was stillborn or died from natural causes shortly after birth, according to autopsies.

Fish and Wildlife agents wanted to look for the bullet or shell casings to determine whether the wolf was killed there or elsewhere, according to the statement. But they gave up the idea of searching after encountering resistance.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will … not pursue any further search of the property at this time,” the statement said. “It will continue, however, its investigation into the death of the wolf.”

The controversy in Lemhi County has already prompted scheduling of a hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee later this month, and U.S. Sen. Larry Craig said Friday he has asked Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch to include the Hussey incident in any hearings that committee might hold on federal law enforcement powers.

xxxx