Gray wolves losing federal protection
Removal from endangered list seen as threat to animal’s revival
The gray wolf, celebrated as one of the greatest conservation comebacks in U. S. history, will lose endangered species protections, the Trump administration announced Thursday.
The widely expected announcement, made by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, attests to the rising numbers of the storied predator, but it’s also setting off widespread concern that the animal is not ready for the change and that wolf populations could perish in parts of the West, including
States will now be allowed to reclassify gray wolves as game or permit kills to protect livestock.
California.
Nearly wiped out by hunters and trappers in the lower 48 states, wolves made significant inroads after federal safeguards were enacted in the 1970s. The large, steelyeyed canines now thrive in parts of
the northern Rockies and Great Lakes region, numbering over 6,000 across the contiguous United States. In much of their territory, however, packs remain thin, including California, where just 14 wolves are known to roam today.
The move by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lift federal protections, allowing states to reclassify the animal as game or permit kills to protect livestock, could blunt emerging wolf populations and prevent the animal from expanding its range, undoing a half century of progress, scientists and conservation groups warn.
“This will be the end of the recovery,” said Amaroq Weiss, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity who works on wolf conservation on the West Coast.
The decision is the latest in a long line of bids by the Trump administration to weaken environmental laws in deference to commercial interests.
This rollback, though, is unusually visceral as the target is an enduring emblem of the American wilderness. The gray wolf, a highly social and sometimes fierce predator, looms large in the continent’s history and folklore and, in 1974, was one of the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act. It ranks alongside bald eagles, bison and bighorn sheep in capturing people’s fascination.
The wolf’s reputation is not universally revered, however, and ranchers and other rural residents who are concerned about the carnivore’s ability to poach cattle and sheep are the beneficiaries of the deregulation.
The California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Cattlemen’s Association have been particularly outspoken about problems with wolves and the need to drop protections. Their anxiety echoes concerns that have flared in past efforts to support top predators on the American landscape, like grizzly bears.
“This year, in particular, there have been an astonishing number of wolf degradations on livestock,” said Kirk Wilbur, spokesman for the California Cattlemen’s Association. “I can think of five instances in the past month, month and half ( in California). That’s a significant burden for ranchers.”
Federal officials say they made the decision to delist the wolf from the Endangered Species Act because legally, its numbers didn’t warrant the special treatment any longer.
“After more than 45 years as a listed species, the gray wolf has exceeded all conservation goals for recovery,” Bernhardt said in a prepared statement. “Today’s announcement simply reflects the determination that this species is neither a threatened nor endangered species based on the specific factors Congress has laid out
“After more than 45 years as a listed species, the gray wolf has exceeded all conservation goals for recovery.” David Bernhardt, interior secretary
in the law.”
Under the regulatory change, the gray wolf loses all protected status in the 48 contiguous states with the exception of a subspecies of gray wolf known as the Mexican wolf in the Southwest. It remains designated as endangered.
Endangered and threatened classifications for gray wolves have already been removed in some parts of the country where the animal is most concentrated, including Montana and Idaho.
The result of Thursday’s announcement is that now each state decides how to manage wolf populations, including whether to allow hunting and kills for livestock protection, and at what numbers.
The change is scheduled to be recorded Tuesday on the Federal Register, where new government rules are posted, and will take effect after 60 days.
In California, state law will continue to safeguard the gray wolf, but wildlife experts say this accomplishes only so much. California’s wolves, like wolves elsewhere, migrate from other states, and if there are fewer in other states, California’s population also languishes.
“It’s a fundamental principle of nature,” Weiss said. “The wolves need to be able to disperse safely to regions where there’s suitable habitat and form new packs.”
The first wolf to appear in California since they were eradicated in the state in the 1920s came from Oregon. It was spotted in 2011.
The wolf, known as OR7 because of the code used to track it, was reported missing this year and is now presumed dead. But one of its pups cavorted with other Oregon wolves to give rise to the Lassen Pack in Lassen and Plumas counties. It’s the lone group living in California today.
State protections for gray wolves in Oregon, where the eastern third of the state has already been stripped from the federal Endangered Species Act, are not as stringent as in California. When state law replaces federal law for the rest of Oregon, conservationists worry that California will see its pipeline for new wolves dry up.“
The only real protection that the wolves had in Oregon was the Endangered Species Act,” said Sristi Kamal, senior Northwest representative for the organization Defenders of Wildlife. “It was the only tool we had to keep wolves from being killed.”
Conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity, are vowing to mount a legal challenge to the administration’s action. Previous efforts to remove the animal from the endangered species list have been stymied by the courts. The earlier lawsuits argued that the wolves’ recovery was not far enough along to justify delisting.
“We definitely will continue to fight,” Kamal said. “This definitely will impact how the species recovers and if it will recover at all.”