Too many wolves

Too many wolves

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
The Trump administration wants to cut federal endangered species protections for gray wolves across the lower 48 states. The US Fish & Wildlife Service said it will make good on their promise to restart the delisting process removing wolves from Endangered Species Act protections once and for all. Wildlife Service officials say they’ll formally publish the delisting in the federal register within the next few days. This is the fourth administration to pursue a formal wolf delisting. Each previous delisting attempt was stopped by the federal courts and pro-wolf groups.

 

US Cattlemen and many hunting groups stand in favor of ending protections for wolves, saying wolf populations have grown too fast, killing cattle, deer and elk populations at an alarming pace. "Through the years it has gotten worse, faster. The problem has always been big, now its bigger and we’ve lost so much livestock and I don’t think we can get a handle on controlling the wolves,” said Valley County rancher Phil Davis, Who lost 6 head of cattle in one month back in 2018.

 

Wolf supporters say that while the animals are thriving in the West, state agencies moved too fast to kill too many wolves once federal protections were lifted in 2012. Critics contend that wolves have not recovered in their original habitat, as the federal Endangered Species Act tried to accomplish. Acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said Wednesday the nation's population of gray wolves has fully recovered in the Lower 48 states and no longer needs federal protection. US Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Gavin Shire says Bernhardt made the announcement during his speech in front of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver. The conference focuses on wildlife conservation policy and includes habitat researchers, state, federal government officials. Gray wolves received endangered species protections back in 1975. when there were about 1000 in the nation. There are now more than 5,000 living across the contiguous US and at least 800 in Idaho. Most wolf populations are in the Western Great Lakes and Northern Rockies. “The administration’s decision to de-list the gray wolf is the culmination of a decades’ long battle that has pitted science-based decision making against litigious, environmental activism. The Bush and Obama administrations supported de-listing the gray wolf. Populations have far surpassed the recovery thresholds set forth by recovery plans, but too many environmentalists fail to recognize this success," added American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall.

 

The proposal would remove federal protections for all gray wolves, with the exception of Mexican gray wolves, which are listed separately under the Endangered Species Act.

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