FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1996                       (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
                                 
                  IDAHO GREY WOLF CASE DISMISSED

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Idaho rancher Eugene Hussey today moved
to dismiss his lawsuit against the United States over its program
to reintroduce grey wolves into the wilderness, the U.S.
Department of Justice announced. 
 
     Today's settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise,
resolves a lawsuit brought by Hussey in September 1995, over the
death of his calf in January 1995.  In his lawsuit, Hussey
alleged that the calf was killed by a grey wolf returned to the
Idaho wilderness by the federal government.
  
     The United States, based on medical evidence developed in
the case, believes that the wolf did not kill the calf, but
acknowledges that it did eat some of the calf after it was dead. 
Based on these facts, the United States, although denying any
responsibility for the death of the calf, agreed to pay Hussey
$440 to cover a portion of the legal costs he incurred in
resolving this matter.

     The United States' Grey Wolf Reintroduction Program
represents the culmination of a twenty year process attempting to
recover the species in an area from which it was systematically
eliminated.  The Reintroduction Program imported grey wolves from
Canada and reintroduced them into two wilderness areas in the
United States--the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and the Central
Idaho Wilderness.
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