Fish and Wildlife Service removes the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act, halting wolf recovery.
© Jim Robertson, author of
Exposing the Big Game: Living Targets of a Dying Sport
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service finalized a rule
removing protections for all gray wolves in the lower-48 states except for a
small population of Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.
The rule, proposed last year, outraged Americans, with approximately 1.8
million comments submitted by the public opposing delisting. Additionally,
86 members of Congress (in both the House and Senate), 100 scientists, 230
businesses, and 367 veterinary professionals submitted letters opposing the
wolf delisting plan. Today Dr. Jane Goodall released a video in response to
the decision. Even the scientific peer reviews commissioned by the Fish and
Wildlife Service itself found that the agency’s proposal contained numerous
errors and appeared to come to a predetermined conclusion, with inadequate
scientific support. Despite this public and scientific outcry, the rule
issued today removes all federal protections from gray wolves.
The following are statements from a coalition of organizations that work
toward wildlife conservation:
“This is no ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment for wolf recovery,” said Kristen
Boyles, Earthjustice attorney. “Wolves are only starting to get a toehold in
places like Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, and wolves need
federal protection to explore habitat in the Southern Rockies and the
Northeast. This delisting decision is what happens when bad science drives
bad policy – and it’s illegal, so we will see them in court.”
“Wolves are too imperiled and ecologically important to be cruelly trapped
or gunned down for sport,” said Collette Adkins, Carnivore Conservation
Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Trump administration
is catering to trophy hunters, the livestock industry and other special
interests that want to kill wolves. We’ll do everything we can to stop it.”
“The decision to remove critical protections for still-recovering gray
wolves is dangerously short-sighted, especially in the face of an extinction
crisis. We should be putting more effort into coexistence with wolves
instead of stripping critical protections still needed for their full
recovery. The science is clear that we need to be doing more to protect
nature and wildlife, not less.,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael
Brune.
“We are disappointed in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s final
determination to remove federal protections for the gray wolf in the lower
48 states,” states Angela Grimes, CEO of Born Free USA. “With current gray
wolf habitats spanning states that are hostile towards the species, gray
wolves still teeter on the verge of recovery. Delisting this American icon
appeases a small percentage of the American public and will surely damage
the viability of future populations.”
“Without the protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act, gray wolves
would never have recovered in the places where they are now,” said Leda
Huta, Executive Director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “By removing
protections across the country, the Trump Administration is abandoning
efforts to restore this iconic American species to millions of acres of wild
habitat.”
“Protecting and restoring the iconic call of the wolf is our duty to not
only the populations of wolves that continue to be persecuted to this day,
but to the ecosystems that depend upon them. Removing protections for wolves
under the Endangered Species Act ensures that these much-maligned creatures
will continue to struggle for their rightful place in the natural world, ”
stated Louie Psihoyos, Founder and Executive Director of Oceanic
Preservation Society. “As we confront the 6th Mass Extinction, we must work
to defend every living component to maintain nature’s complex and delicate
balance.”
“Wolves are just beginning a tentative recovery in states like Washington,
Oregon, California, and Colorado, and the howl of the wolf is completely
absent from their natural habitats in states like Nevada and Utah,” said
Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist and Executive Director of Western
Watersheds Project. “Removing Endangered Species Act protections before wolf
populations are secure, and before their recovery is complete, is
ecologically irresponsible.”
“By turning over gray wolf management to the states, the Fish and Wildlife
Service is relying on local management regimes that often undermine gray
wolf recovery efforts,” said Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare
Institute. “Many of the states’ wolf management plans are vague and
unenforceable, lack sources of funding, and prioritize recreational hunting
interests over the maintenance of viable wolf populations. Gray wolves are
apex predators who play a vital role in ecosystems, contribute to a
multibillion-dollar outdoor tourism industry, and are a beloved symbol of
our nation’s wildlands.”
“Where wolves are unprotected, they are mercilessly persecuted, as we've
already had a glimpse of in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, ” said Lindsay
Larris, Wildlife Program Director at WildEarth Guardians. “Now they are
defenseless across their range, which is bad news for wolves, but good news
for people who want to shoot and trap them. The Trump administration is once
again destroying our shared natural resources for the interests of a few."
“Stripping protections for gray wolves is premature and reckless,” said
Defenders of Wildlife President and CEO, Jamie Rappaport Clark. “Gray wolves
occupy only a fraction of their former range and need continued federal
protection to fully recover. We will be taking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to court to defend this iconic species.”
“If we want to save wolves, we need a national plan, if not a continental
one,” said Environment America’s Conservation Program Senior Director Steve
Blackledge. “Wolves need plenty of space to roam, and it just doesn’t make
sense to create arbitrary boundaries for them. Do we really want to lose the
hearty howl of the gray wolf on our watch?”
“You cannot have a national wolf recovery without putting forward a national
wolf recovery plan. This still has not happened, so eliminating federal
protections for gray wolves is a huge setback in recovery efforts,” said
Sylvia Fallon, Senior Director, Wildlife for the Natural Resources Defense
Council. “Wolves are still missing from much of their remaining habitat in
the West and throughout the Northeast. As we face a biodiversity crisis of
global proportions, now is the time to restore species to the landscape –
not dial back efforts. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has decided
on the exact opposite.”
“The many threats that caused wolves to become endangered still exist,” said
Nancy Warren, Executive Director National Wolfwatcher Coalition. “States
have shown over and over again, that wolf management is based on politics
rather than science. The cumulative effects of interpack strife, aggressive
hunting and trapping practices, legal and illegal killings, car collisions
and disease impact not only wolf populations but also the social structure
of packs well beyond the extent of each individual threat.”
“Once large carnivores lose federal protections, the states often open
liberal hunting and trapping seasons, purposely depleting populations,” said
Garrick Dutcher, Research and Program Director for Living with Wolves.
“History shows this to be especially true for the gray wolf, whose recovery
is underway, but nowhere near complete. There is no biologically sound
reason to lessen or remove protections for wolves.”
“The return of the wolf reflects more fully functional and wild ecosystems,”
said Wolf Conservation Center Executive Director, Maggie Howell. “While we
agree that wolves cannot be recovered everywhere they used to be found,
there is still plenty of suitable habitat left in areas where wolves have
yet to recover. Vast swaths of existing, highly suitable habitat in the
Southern Rockies, parts of West, and the Northeast will now remain forever
impoverished by reduced biological diversity and impaired ecosystem health.”
“Wolves are only recovered in 15% of their range at best,” stated Camilla
Fox, Founder and Executive Director of Project Coyote. “Only anti-wolf bias,
and certainly not credible science, would conclude that 15% constitutes a
significant portion of wolves’ historic range. This completely contravenes
the notion of evidence-based policy or science-based wolf recovery.”
“Given that gray wolves in the lower 48 states occupy a fraction of their
historical and currently available habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service
determining they are successfully recovered does not pass the straight-face
test,” said John Mellgren, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law
Center. “On its face, this appears to be politically motivated. While the
Trump administration may believe it can disregard science, the law does not
support such a stance. We look forward to having a court hear our
science-based arguments for why wolves desperately need Endangered Species
Act protections to fully recover.”
"Restoring endangered species is much more than a minimum population numbers
game”. stated David Parsons, Carnivore Conservation Biologist at The
Rewilding Institute. “The first purpose of the ESA is to restore ecosystems
that are critical to the recovery of endangered species. Gray wolves are
keystone species in their ecosystems, and removing their protection under
the ESA will forever preclude them from re-inhabiting significant areas
historically occupied habitats, leaving these areas ecologically
impoverished.”
"Until all wildlife voices are weighted equally and the state agencies
inhumane and unscientific management plans are changed to reflect real
Wisconsin values on wolf conservation and independent research, then the
wolf hasn't truly recovered. Endangered species conservation begins and ends
with managing and educating people. Delisting would essentially throw the
wolf back into the hands of the very same attitudes and practices that
caused their extinction in Wisconsin," said Melissa Smith, director of Great
Lakes Wildlife Alliance and Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf & Wildlife.
“Entrusting states with gray wolf management is a brutal and failed
experiment,” said Kimberly Baker, Executive Director of the Klamath Forest
Alliance. “Idaho serves as a horrific example, where 60% of the state’s wolf
population, including dozens of pups, were exterminated in a single year,
destroying decades of wolf recovery efforts.”
“Delisting will cause wolves to fall prey to the whim of state governments,
led by boards disproportionately represented by hunting/trapping interests,”
said Karol Miller, President of The 06 Legacy. “This conflict of interest is
without consideration of the positive role of wolves or the need for
sufficient populations to fulfill their role as a critical keystone species
in a healthy ecosystem.”
“The northeast has been totally ignored by state and federal governments
despite the fact that it contains tens of thousands of square miles of
potentially suitable wolf habitat, abundant prey, and is as near as sixty
miles to existing wolf populations in Canada,” according to John Glowa,
President of The Maine Wolf Coalition, Inc. “Furthermore, recent evidence
indicates that wolves have returned to the region. This keystone predator is
an essential part of the ecosystem in the northeast where deer populations
are exploding and where moose are lacking natural predators. Stripping
federal protection will doom natural wolf recolonization and will ensure
that the ecosystem is never returned to its natural state.”
"Wolves are one of the most highly persecuted species in North America, and
the humans that came before us did a remarkable job of eliminating these
carnivores from our landscapes," said Wildlands Network Conservation
Director and Interim Executive Director Greg Costello. "We now recognize the
ecological need for wolves, and must continue to uphold the inherent right
of this species to coexist in the world."
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has once more shown its blatant
disregard for the values of the majority of Americans who care deeply about
wolves and don’t want to see them killed for the pleasure of a few trophy
hunters,” said Sara Amundson, President of Humane Society Legislative Fund.
“ This politicized decision by the Trump Administration throws away decades
of science-based recovery efforts and is based on the same fearmongering and
hate that caused the extirpation of wolves a hundred years ago. We’ll never
give up fighting to secure their permanent protection from such wanton
cruelty and destruction.”
“Wolves are among the essential wildlife for healthy, resilient ecosystems,
especially during these times of chaotic climate change. In addition, wolves
are also valued by many Americans for their intrinsic worth as
co-inhabitants of the Earth’s wildlands.” Kim Crumbo, Wildlands Coordinator,
The Rewilding Institute.
“Removing protections for gray wolves amid a global extinction crisis is
short-sighted and dangerous to America’s conservation legacy,” said Bart
Melton, Wildlife Program Director for the National Parks Conservation
Association. “Rather than working alongside communities to support the
return of wolves to parks and surrounding landscapes including Dinosaur
National Monument, North Cascades and Lassen National Forest, the
administration essentially today said, ‘good enough’ and removed Endangered
Species Act protections. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal ignores
the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, science, and common sense.”
“The gray wolf is a keystone species that plays a critical role in
maintaining healthy ecosystems across its historic range,” said Danielle
Kessler, U.S. Country Director for the International Fund for Animal
Welfare. “Wolf populations are far from recovered in much of their native
territory. Removing federal protections now and placing wolves in the hands
of state managers only threatens already fragile gains. No state has the
breadth of vision to oversee recovery efforts for species that range beyond
its boundaries. For the sake of our shared environment, as well as the
health and survival of gray wolves themselves, federal protections remain
essential for this iconic American species.”
“Howling For Wolves is adamant in our opposition to wolf trophy hunting and
trapping. We have witnessed how wolf hunting and trapping harms the wolf
population. Human wolf killing destroys the individual wolf, which is a
magnificent and social animal, and these killings cause other secondary wolf
deaths. Research shows that human wolf killing disrupts wolf packs, causing
unstable and unpredictable effects including increased wolf-livestock
conflicts,” said Howling For Wolves President and Founder Dr. Maureen
Hackett.
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