Expanding Exports & Grey Wolf Lawsuit

Expanding Exports & Grey Wolf Lawsuit. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The President has called for the doubling of exports in the next 5 years and Washington Congressman Doc Hastings would like to see that happen. And he says there is one sure way to get to that goal.

HASTINGS: I think and have long been a proponent of exporting more of our agricultural products. I hope this isn’t one of those conditions where words are louder than action because the President can immediately allow our agriculture producers to have more markets if he would send up to Congress, immediately, the three trade agreements. But he hasn’t done that and of course we can’t act on that until he sends them up.

Attorneys, representing the Washington Cattlemen’s Association have filed a federal lawsuit to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct the legally mandated five-year status review of the gray wolf, to determine whether the species continues to warrant listing as "endangered." It has been listed since 1978, but from that point to the present, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has never conducted a formal scientific review of its status to determine whether continued listing is appropriate.  The suit says a failure to conduct such reviews is in direct violation of the law.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.