Funding

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/02/21/news/state/18-wolfstatus.txt">Funding questions abound as feds change wolf's status</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>Returning gray wolves to the Northern Rockies has already cost more than $27 million. Keeping them here will mean spending millions of dollars more.<br />n<br />nBut with federal officials poised today to announce the removal of wolves from the endangered-species list, there are unresolved questions about how state-run wolf programs – expected next year to cost around $3.3 million to manage more than 1,500 wolves – will be funded in the coming years.</blockquote><br />n<br />nIn simple words, the Feds will tell the states how to manage the wolves, but will not pay any money to do it. The states will have to fund it themselves.<br />n<br />nShouldn't the states get to choose how they manage the wolves if they have to pay for it themselves instead of having the Feds breathe down their necks? Seems to me like they should.<br />n<br />nThis is all moot anyway, some pro wolf group/groups will get a restraining order to keep the Feds from taking them off the endangered species list and there will be years of court battles before it is ever resolved. I guess worrying about funding is like putting the cart before the horse. Lets get them off the endangered species list first.<br />n<br />n<strong>I don't know whether I'm, like, jumping the gun but it's possible that in the future we may be able to use the information that we can't receive at the moment. Sean Booth </strong>