Conservation Groups Allege Idaho is Breaking Environmental Laws

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Five conservation groups that contend federal officials in Idaho are violating environmental laws by killing wolves, coyotes and other wildlife to protect livestock and crops have filed a federal lawsuit.

Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project and four other groups filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The lawsuit seeks to have the agency adopt nonlethal methods and conduct a more rigorous environmental analysis of the agency's killing of wildlife.

The lawsuit notes that the federal agency killed more than 200,000 animals in Idaho in 2013, including 2,739 coyotes and 79 wolves. The lawsuit says federal authorities have also failed to consider how their actions effect federally protected grizzly bears, Canada lynx and bull trout.