Senate Panel OKs Funds Cut on Wolf Project

The Interior Department’s program to introduce more wolves into Yellowstone National Park was dealt a severe blow Friday when a Senate panel voted to divert nearly half its funding to another research project.

On a quick voice vote, with few senators still in the room, the Appropriations Committee passed the measure as part of a $12.1-billion spending bill for land and resource management as well as arts and humanities programs.

The amendment, offered by Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), would divert $200,000 from the wolf-reintroduction program’s $527,000 budget to do research on a parasite causing whirling disease, responsible for killing trout in three Montana rivers.

The parasite causes fish to spin or whirl themselves to death. Burns said the parasite could cost the state $33 million in tourism and other costs.

“I have said all along that reintroducing wolves is a misplaced priority when we have so many other pressing problems in Montana,” Burns said in a statement.

Farmers and ranchers near Yellowstone have protested the program to bring wolves back to the area, saying it imperils their livestock.

But the Interior Department has said it is the best way to get wolves off the endangered species list and help restore Yellowstone to a natural wildlife balance. The department hopes to have 300 wolves in the area by the year 2002.

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the environmental organization Defenders of Wildlife, called the Burns amendment “crazy.”

“The wolf will benefit the park and the state. The tourists love it. This action gives the public an example of how crazy Congress can be when dealing with the environment,” he said.

The appropriations bill the committee approved also would increase the pace of logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, a move backed by Alaska’s senators and the timber industry but opposed by environmentalists.