Groups file lawsuit to restore protections to wolves
Wildlife advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to restore Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in Wisconsin and most other states.
The action was in response to the Jan. 4 delisting of the species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which allowed state agencies to resume management of wolves, including the possibility for hunting, trapping and other lethal control measures.
The plaintiffs argue wolves need more protection and only the federal blanket of the ESA will allow the species to reoccupy more of its historical range.
“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.”
Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Oregon Wild and the Humane Society of the United States.
The action was filed in U.S. District Court in northern California; the defendant is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
It represents the latest chapter in decades-long debate about what constitutes sufficient recovery for the native apex predator.
Interior Department spokesperson Vanessa Kauffman said in a statement Thursday that the decision to delist the wolf was based on the "best scientific and commercial data available."
Wolves in the Lower 48 states were subjected to extermination campaigns, many with bounties funded by state and federal agencies, from the 1800s to mid-1900s, and by the 1960s only a small population remained in northern Minnesota.
With protections of the ESA beginning in 1973, the animals began to increase in number and distribution. The first wolves drifted back to Wisconsin in the 1970s, according to biologists.
Over the decades wolves have shown a steady, gradual increase in Wisconsin except for 2012-14, when the state held hunting and trapping seasons. In the winter of 2019-20 Wisconsin had 1,195 wolves and 256 packs, according to estimates from the Department of Natural Resources. Both numbers are modernera highs.
Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan all have stable to increasing wolf populations.
But the plaintiffs argue wolves remain threatened nationwide and are still absent from 70% of habitat they once ranged and that could sustain wolf populations today.
The filing asks the court to vacate and remand the recent delisting rule because it "ignores the best available science, is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law."
It comes as the DNR faces criticism over its decision to begin the next Wisconsin wolf hunting and trapping season Nov. 6.
Some state lawmakers and representatives of hunting groups would have preferred it to begin this winter.
"I want to know why you can't open a tag drawing this week, and start a season next week," said state Sen. Rob Stafsholt (R-New Richmond), chairman of the Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business and Rural Issues. "Being 100% electronic is possible."
Stafsholt was speaking Wednesday at a joint informational hearing on the wolf season held by the Assembly Committee on Sporting Heritage and Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business and Rural Issues.
State law says the DNR "shall" hold a wolf hunting and trapping season from the first Saturday in November to the end of February when the species is not listed on the federal or state list of endangered and threatened species,
In its letter to the committees, the DNR detailed the steps it needs to take before beginning the next wolf season.
"Although gray wolf management will be under state authority in early 2021, implementing a wolf season requires adequate time not only to develop a science-based harvest quota but also to engage the public and tribal partners in the development of a season plan that adequately reflects the interests of diverse stakeholders throughout Wisconsin," the letter said. "Recognizing the broad diversity of viewpoints surrounding the management of wolves, and the importance of managing all wildlife species in a sciencebased manner, the department is committed to providing a transparent, deliberative and inclusive process to implement a wolf harvest season beginning in November 2021."