This bill is similar to another bill currently in Congress, H.R. 843.
Bill Description:
This bill would require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-issue previous rulings that removed gray wolves from the list of threatened and endangered species in the Western Great Lakes region (Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), plus Wisconsin. Management of wolf populations would be returned to the states.[teaserbreak]
Background:
The federal government has tried four times since 2003 to lift protections for Great Lakes wolves, only to be repeatedly stymied by court rulings.
Most recently, in December of 2014, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sided with conservation groups contending the Great Lakes states’ regulatory plans — which include hunting and, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, trapping — don’t provide enough protection. She noted the wolves haven’t come close to repopulating their historic range, which is a criteria for recovery under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The result of this court decision was to return full endangered protections to Great Lakes wolf populations after nearly four years of state-authorized slaughter.
A few months prior, in September of 2014, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson returned Endangered Species Act protections to wolves in Wyoming. In her ruling, she agreed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that wolves there had recovered. But she said the state hadn’t provided sufficient guarantees that a minimum population would be maintained.
This bill represents the latest effort by Congress to ignore both science and the intent of the Endangered Species Act, and attempt to override the reasoned decisions of multiple judges. Such a move by Congress sets a dangerous precedent that, if successful, will surely lead to endless efforts to delist species based purely on politics. This would thoroughly undermine the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, one of our most powerful tools to ensure that the nation’s wildlife is conserved.
Please read our gray wolf page for more on this imperiled species and the ongoing battle to protect it.
Take Action:
Please contact your U.S. representative and senators and urge them not to support this legislation! There are more constructive ways to address concerns about growing wolf populations than by allowing states to reopen brutal hunting seasons.
Read the full text and follow its progress here for the House version and here for the Senate version.