Tag Archives: wolf hunt

Keep Michigan Wolves Protected launching second petition drive

Posted on by
3

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/07/keep_michigan_wolves_protected.html

Keep Michigan Wolves Protected launching second petition drive after new law blocked original effort

wolf.jpeg
(AP File Photo/DNR)

LANSING, MI — A coalition supported by the Humane Society of the United States is gearing up for a petition drive aimed at banning wolf hunting in Michigan — again.

Keep Michigan Wolves Protected said Tuesday that it has filed petition language with the Secretary of State. If the petition form is approved, the group will begin efforts to collect more than 225,000 voter signatures to place a second measure on the 2014 ballot.

The coalition previously collected more than 250,000 signatures for a separate ballot referendum seeking to block wolf hunting in Michigan. The Board of Canvassers certified those signatures, estimating at least 214,000 were valid.

But legislation sponsored by Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, and signed into law by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder essentially sidestepped the effort by giving the Natural Resources Commission the authority to establish a new game species. The NRC had voted to establish a fall wolf hunt in three areas of the Upper Peninsula and is expected to vote again this month under the new law.

“That bill was deliberately introduced and passed to scuttle our first referendum effort to remove wolves from the valid species list for hunting,” said Jill Fritz of Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, who is the state director for The Humane Society of the United States.

“We just want Michigan voters to be able to have a say in protecting wildlife, and that was taken away from them. They’re going to go out there, collect signatures, and get their voice back.”

The old referendum seeks to overturn Public Act 520 of 2012. The new referendum would seek to overturn Public Act 21 of 2013. Both measures could make the ballot, and Fritz said she will encourage voters to reject both laws.

Supporters of a wolf hunt appear equally determined.

They say wolves are causing problems in the Upper Peninsula, killing livestock and pets while becoming increasingly comfortable around humans. State law allows farmers, ranchers and dog owners to kill wolves who attack on their property, but residents say those measures are inadequate.

Some local governments have approved resolutions indicating that “overpopulation of wolves is threatening the tourism, recreation and business industries in the Western U.P.,” noting that “this situation has become a public safety issue for our citizens.”

Michigan is the sixth state to authorize a wolf hunt since federal protections were removed over the past two years in the western Great Lakes and Northern Rockies, according to the Associated Press.

The Upper Peninsula is home to an estimated 658 wolves — down from 687 a couple of years ago, but up from roughly 500 in 2008 and approximately 200 in 2000. The state counted just three wolves in 1989.

Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group.

States must demonstrate respect for wolves before assuming management

Posted on by
8

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/states-must-demonstrate-respect-for-wolves-before-assuming-management/article_90c75b9a-da84-11e2-b787-0019bb2963f4.html

letter to the editor

I was very troubled by your (June 18) editorial supporting the delisting of wolves in the lower 48.

Your editorial mentions that wildlife groups worry this could lead to the extermination of wolves in many states, and that concern isn’t unfounded. It is, in fact, supported by recent events in the form of hunting seasons in states such as Idaho and Wyoming and of course, Montana. The widespread hostility of these popular hunting states toward the wolf as a “trophy animal” and the alleged “sportsman” that are eager to simply kill the wolf is appalling. Barely on the cusp of recovery, wolves are killed for the sole purpose of a pelt, a rug or a taxidermy prize. Forty years of protection for endangered species leads to this? What a travesty.

And let’s not forget the fragile border of Yellowstone National Park in Montana, and the killing a few months back of the popular 831F, a collared Yellowstone wolf that happened to wander outside the safety of the park. How many other wolves might suffer a similar fate, a sick and sad potential future for the state of Montana if the wolves are stripped of their protection.

You also mention that if, indeed, human’s overzealous hunting practices take the wolf back to the brink of extinction, the Endangered Species Act can be applied again. What is the likelihood of the ESA being applied again once lifted? My guess is slim to none!

Certainly there can be a balance between permanent protection and wholesale slaughter. A reasonable respect to the wolf lineage that humans destroyed and have worked for many years to rebuild must be fostered before the ESA is removed from these animals, otherwise the individual states will never be able to govern themselves. This, we’ve already, unfortunately, seen.

Jennifer Selzer

copyrighted Hayden wolf in lodgepoles

 

Predator management by state wildlife agency biologists questioned

Posted on by
8

This is all common sense stuff we already knew, but it’s good to hear it from the mouths of state wildlife agency biologists…

Predator management by state wildlife agency biologists questioned

By On June 28, 2013 

I recently had encounters with three state wildlife agency biologists. All of them were quite open with their criticisms of their agencies predator policies.  I can’t reveal their names and I will change a few details to hide their identities.

The first biologist told me there was no reason to kill predators. He said it only creates greater social chaos which in turn leads to more unnecessary killing.  He told me that increasing the kill of predators by hunters—whether cougars or wolves—seldom reduced conflicts. If it’s good habitat, the vacuum created by killing a cougar or a wolf pack will soon be filled by immigrants. So in the end livestock operators have to learn to discourage predation by practicing good animal husbandry.  Predator killing just doesn’t work.

Another reason predator control fails is that most hunters pursue animals that live on the larger blocks of public land, while most of the conflicts occur on the fringes of towns or on private ranch lands. In other words, the majority of cougars and wolves killed by hunters are animals that are not causing any conflicts.

He went on to say that hunting predators had no benefits. Period.

The second biologist told me that wolves were not harming elk and deer herds. Rather elk and deer populations have increased in the state since wolves were introduced. He pointed out that wolves were also not destroying the livestock industry though he did acknowledge that individual ranchers might be challenged by wolf depredations.

He also reiterated that hunting predators was indiscriminate. The specific predator killing a rancher’s livestock is often not the animal killed by hunters so arguing that killing predators will reduce conflicts is at best a half truth.

The third biologist told me that his agency missed the boat by not responding to the misinformation from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Toby Bridges of Lobo Watch. By not countering the distortions put forth by these organizations, fabrications and half-truths were widely distributed by the media.

He also acknowledged that wolves could not increase indefinitely. They expand their range into new territories but their densities are socially maintained.  In other words, you will not get more and more wolves living in the same basic area.  He said people have to learn to live with natural processes which include predation.

What these encounters demonstrate to me is that many biologists working for these state agencies are sympathetic to predator supporters.  They are muzzled by their agencies and unable to speak the truth. Still it is refreshing to know that supporters of predators have some friends within state agencies—biologists who are hoping that legal attempts to stop unnecessary and indiscriminate hunting and trapping will succeed.

This also means that citizens and those who support predators have to create the political space where these biologists can feel free to speak their minds. Keep up the pressure, there are some in these state wildlife agencies who know the score, and are as devoted to wildlife as anyone.

copyrighted wolf in water

POLITICS DOMINATED WOLF DE-LISTING MEETINGS

Posted on by
7

Science Was Afterthought in Developing Preferred Alternatives for Wolf Recovery.

Jun 27, 2013

http://www.peer.org/news/news-releases/2013/06/26/politics-dominated-wolf-de-listing-meetings/

Washington, DC —The federal government’s plan to remove the gray wolf from the protections of the Endangered Species Act was hammered out through political bargaining with affected states, according to documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Contrary to requirements of the Endangered Species Act that listing decisions must be governed by the best available science, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service presided over a process in which political and economic considerations were at the forefront..

The 52 documents produced by Fish & Wildlife Service detail how the “National Wolf Strategy” was developed in a series of closed-door federal-state meetings called “Structured Decision Making” or SDM beginning in August 2010. The meetings involved officials from every region of the Service and representatives from the game and fish agencies of 13 states. The SDM process featured –.
•A “Focus on Values. Determine objectives (values) first, and let them drive the analysis.” An SDM flow-chart starts with Problem and goes to Objectives, to Alternatives and then to Consequences at which stage a small box labeled “Data” finally comes into play;
•An explicit political test “Where should wolves exist? (emphasis in original) What does the public want? What can the public tolerate?”; and
•A matrix to weigh alternatives on a scale of “legal defensibility” then “public acceptance” followed by “wolf conservation” and finally “efficiency.”

“These documents confirm our worst suspicions that the fate of the wolf was decided at a political bazaar. The meeting notes certainly explain why no outside scientists were welcome,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch who had been seeking the records since April 2012. “From what we can see, Structured Decision Making was structured primarily to deal out the lower-48 population of gray wolves.”.

Under a federal proposal currently out for public comment the gray wolf would be stricken from the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The Mexican wolf, with only a handful remaining in the wild, would keep its endangered status but no protected habitat would be delineated for it..

Much of the meetings were devoted to assuaging state threats to sue to halt wolf reintroductions. The tenor of these discussions was captured by a map titled “New Fantastic Alternative” which allowed unlimited hunting of gray wolves in Colorado and Utah. It also confined Mexican wolves to portions of Arizona and New Mexico..

“The Obama administration keeps preaching integrity of science and transparency but seems to practice neither on any matter of consequence,” Ruch added, pointing to PEER’s detailed complaint on how politics smothered the recovery plan developed for Mexican wolves by a team of scientific experts. “In simplest terms, these documents detail how the gray wolf lost a popularity contest among wildlife managers.”.

These foundational SDM documents obtained by PEER will likely provide fodder for the lawsuits that will almost certainly follow the expected final federal decision to de-list the gray wolf.

copyrighted wolf in river

“Game” “Managers” Kill 4 Idaho Wolves

Posted on by
23

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005147792#.UcZde77n9jo

Friday, June 21, 2013

4 wolves killed after livestock deaths

Kill order remains in place for wolves near Silver Creek

By GREG MOORE Express Staff Writer

An Idaho wolf moves through a clearing. Photo courtesy of Idaho Fish and Game

 

Four wolves—one near Carey and three in the Sawtooth Valley—have been killed in recent weeks due to depredation on cattle and sheep. All were killed by Idaho Wildlife Services on private land.

According to the agency’s director, Todd Grimm, a female wolf was trapped and killed May 29 on the Flat Top Ranch following a complaint by ranch owner John Peavey that he had lost more than two dozen lambs and ewes. Peavey said he protects the bands with people, spotlights and guard dogs, but he was criticized by wolf advocates for allowing his ewes to give birth on the range rather than in sheds.

Grimm said the wolf had had pups this spring, but was not lactating at the time she was trapped and killed.

“Either the pups were no longer nursing or they had already died,” he said.

Grimm said three male wolves were trapped and killed on Decker Flat, on the west side of the Sawtooth Valley near Obsidian, on May 30 and 31 and June 10. He said the wolves were killed upon direction from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, as is the case in all the lethal actions taken by Wildlife Services, an agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said the order came following the death of a calf on May 28.

Grimm said two of the wolves were yearlings and were wearing radio collars placed on them by the Department of Fish and Game. He said Wildlife Services sometimes refrains from killing wolves with collars, depending on their value to scientists studying them.

“In this case, we didn’t realize the wolves were radio-collared until after the fact,” he said.

Grimm said he did not know of any nonlethal deterrent actions taken before the kill order was issued, a situation criticized by pro-wolf activists. When requested, the Idaho Wolf Project, organized by nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, provides ranchers with volunteer night guards, portable fencing, air horns and other deterrent methods.

“Here we have people willing to help with proven nonlethal methods and we’re spending taxpayer dollars to kill wolves,” said Lynne Stone, director of the Boulder-White Clouds Council.

But Grimm said nonlethal deterrents don’t work well with cattle, which stay much more spread out at night than do sheep.

He said the three wolf kills ended the control order in the Sawtooth Valley.

Grimm said a kill order has also been issued for two wolves in the Silver Creek area south of Bellevue after a calf was confirmed to have been killed there on June 8. However, he said, “the wolves haven’t shown back up, so I don’t know if we’ll be able to do anything there.”

URGENT! Montana Wolf Hunt Comments Due on 24th‏

Posted on by
10

From another list:

http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/publicComments/2013_14proposedWolfSeason.html

We all know that it doesn’t seem to make a difference when it comes to our public comments making a difference when it comes to MFWP idiotic and reprehensible

wolf management, but it will be on public record, and will show support for seeing wolves alive rather than dead and, it will show the rest of the world that more people value wolves and but a few want to eliminate them. These new regulations are being supported by the livestock industry, Rocky Mtn Elk Foundation, and other hunting groups and have nothing to do with science.

PLEASE comment and here’s some talking points from WOTR and Kim Bean

Wolves that are coexisting with humans and livestock will be killed for no other reason than bigotry and extreme mismanagement. Critical habitat for wolves near Yellowstone (Gardiner Basin) has been excluded from the quota areas. This is a deliberate attempt to kill as many YNP wolves as possible. With less than 25 wolves in the entire northern range of YNP, this will certainly prove an end to wolf packs of Yellowstone.

Some of our concerns are as follows: Hunters & trappers will be able to hunt over baited traps, as well as use electronic calls to pull wolves from safety into their line of fire. Because of the extended season September 15, 2013 – March 31, 2014 hunters will be able to hunt wolves in the advanced stages of pregnancy. If a hunter kills an alpha female he/she has killed the future survival of the pack. Disruption of the pack structure will lead to increased depredation and smaller pack sizes, yet more packs on the land. A Visions of Walt Disney’s Fantasia “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” comes to mind. A Wolf’s fur does not become full until late November; wolves killed prior to this are killed simply for the sake of killing.

Issues of Concern or Talking Points

1. Extended Season (15 Sept 2013 – 31 March 2014)

• Hunting Pregnant Wolves

• Pelt is Substandard

• Unethical & Immoral

• Disruption of the Pack Structure

• Killing to Hunt or Hunting to Kill

• Bitterroot Elk Study Research states Very Low Wolf Predation

2. Bag Limit of 5

• Annihilate Entire Pack

• Disrupt Pack Social Structure

• Increased Depredation

• Leads to Smaller Packs = Increase in Packs on the landscape

• Decrease in Recruitment

• Killing Pregnant Wolves ½ way through gestation

• Black Science

• In Contrast with North American Wildlife Conservation Model

3. Baiting Traps

• Not Fair Chase & Unethical

• Unenforceable

• Drastic Departure from Montana Wolf Management Plan

Yellowstone Wolves

Gardiner Basin MUST be included in the quota unit of 313

Revenue producing value of 35.5 + million sustainable dollars to the communities surrounding YNP

Research value utilized world-wide

Number 1 tourist attraction in YNP

These are not just Montana’s wolves, but the Nations wolves

Miscellaneous Talking Points

Could help slow or contain CWD Chronic Wasting Disease

Livestock Depredation continue to decline – In 2012 2.6 million cattle in MT, depredation by wolves 67

Huge deviation from the Montana Gray Wolf Management Plan

Under Public Trust Doctrine Wildlife belong to all Montanans

Elk Populations are virtually at or above objectives in Montana 55% above objective

More elk now in Montana then when wolves were reintroduced

Approximately 73 wolves in Yellowstone

Less than 25 in the Northern Range of YNP – only 18 in Lamar Valley

copyrighted-wolf-argument-settled

Montana “Conservationist” Accused Of Declaring War On Wolves

Posted on by
3

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Montana Conservationist Accused Of Declaring War On Wolves            

Robert Ferris,
Published 5:36 am, Saturday, June 15, 2013

 

Many conservationists are furious over a recent proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to drop the gray wolf from the endangered species list.

At least one group of conservationists [their word, not mine], however, also supports dropping federal protection for wolves. They are the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, led by hunter David Allen. …

Allen’s controversial stance has alienated some former supporters of the Elk Foundation, who accuse him of turning the conservation group into a pro-hunting lobby. The family of famed wildlife biologist Olaus J. Murie pulled money last year for its annual Elk Foundation award on account of the organization’s “all-out war against wolves,” according to the Montana Pioneer. …

Allen would like to see the wolf population in the Rocky Mountain region shrink: “We do feel like the number could be managed downward and not threaten the population overall,” he said. [How many individual wolves will suffer while they “manage” them “downward”?]

When asked by the Pioneer about the natural predator-prey relations, Allen said: “Natural balance is a Walt Disney movie. It isn’t real.”

The former marketer for NASCAR is not what you might think of today as a conservationist. [That’s because he’s not; he’s a fucking marketer for NASCAR and a trophy hunter]. Allen poses for photos in hunter camo, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has a page on its site called “The Hunt,” where users can plan their own elk hunts and get game recipes from the “Carnivore’s Corner.”

But he and his cohort maintain that hunters are the original conservationists [LMFAO]. They take inspiration from early American hunters and outdoorsmen like Theodore Roosevelt. [Oh, you mean that guy who wrote African Game Trails in which he lovingly muses over shooting elephants, hippos, buffaloes, lions, cheetahs, leopards, giraffes, zebras, hartebeest, impalas, pigs, the not-so-formidable 30-pound steenbok and even (in what must have seemed the pinnacle of manly sport with rifles) a mother ostrich on her nest?]

The proposal to delist gray wolves across the country and return management to the states comes less than two years after populations in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Utah, which cover the Northern Rocky Mountain region, were stripped of Federal protections.

Environmental activists who oppose taking gray wolves off the endangered species list argue that the population has not been restored to its historical range, which once extended across the much of the contiguous United States.

Considered a threat to livestock, the gray wolf was nearly hunted to extinction in the early to mid-20th century. Canadian-born gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s and the population has largely recovered due to conservation efforts. [True conservation, that is. Not to be confused with the warped perversion practiced by the self-serving Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.]

copyrighted-wolf-argument-settled

 

Comment Info for Wolf Delisting

Posted on by
7

From Defenders of Wildlife,

Well they did it.

Last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) formally proposed to remove federal Endangered Species Act protection for most of the gray wolves across the United States.

FWS is required by law to accept public comments before they can make their final decision on this misguided proposal. Defenders plans to use this 90 day comment period to organize strong and vocal opposition from supporters like you to make sure the decision makers in Washington hear what America thinks about the premature delisting of gray wolves.

Submit your comment today and tell the FWS that you strongly oppose their misguided proposal to delist nearly all wolves:

…

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/06/13/2013-13982/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-removing-the-gray-wolf-canis-lupus-from-the-list-of

You may submit comments by one of the following methods:

(1) Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2013-0073, which is the docket number for this rulemaking. Please ensure you have found the correct document before submitting your comments. If your comments will fit in the provided comment box, please use this feature of http://regulations.gov, as it is most compatible with our comment-review procedures. If you attach your comments as a separate document, our preferred file format is Microsoft Word. If you attach multiple comments (such as form letters), our preferred format is a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. Submissions of electronic comments on our Proposed Revision to the Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Wolf, which also published in today’s Federal Register, should be submitted to Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2013-0056 using the method described above.

(2) By hard copy: Submit by U.S. mail or hand-delivery to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-HQ-ES-2013-0073; Division of Policy and Directives Management; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, MS 2042-PDM; Arlington, Virginia 22203.

We will post all comments on http://www.regulations.gov. This generally means that we will post any personal information you provide us (see the Public Comments section below for more information). Submissions of hard copy comments on our Proposed Revision to the Nonessential Experimental Population of the Mexican Wolf, which also published in today’s Federal Register should be addressed to Attn: Docket No. FWS-R2-ES-2013-0056 using the method described above.

                             ______________

From Defenders of Wildlife, Here are some important points you could include in your comments:

  • Gray wolf recovery is not complete.  This decision could derail wolf recovery efforts in areas around the country where it has barely begun — in places like the Pacific Northwest and in states that possess some of the nation’s best unoccupied wolf habitat, such as northern California, Colorado, and Utah.
  • Delisting would prematurely turn wolf management over to the states. We’ve already seen what can happen when rabid anti-wolf politics are allowed to trump science and core wildlife management principles.
  • Montana, Wyoming and Idaho — where wolves have already been delisted — are not managing wolves like other wildlife such as elk, deer, and bears. Instead they’re intending to drive the wolves’ population numbers back down to the bottom.
  • Other species, such as the bald eagle, American alligator, and peregrine falcon were declared recovered and delisted when they occupied a much larger portion of their former range. Wolves deserve the same chance at real recovery.

The future of wolves in the U.S. is at stake. Please send your comments to the FWS today.
Over the coming weeks, we are launching an unprecedented and aggressive campaign to convince the Obama Administration to withdraw this reckless proposal and make good on our nation’s commitment to restore imperiled wolves.

copyrighted Hayden wolf in lodgepoles

National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc. has Beef With Mexicans…

Posted on by
16

…Mexican Wolves, that is. Some people are never satisfied. Although there are only around 75 individuals remaining on Earth, the “Cattleman’s Beef Association” wants the government to remove the Mexican wolf from the federal list of endangered species and turn their “management” over to hostile states…

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/210839191.html

NCBA, PLC call for full delisting of wolves nationwide

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association | Updated: 06/10/2013

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the Public Lands Council (PLC) expressed support for the proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to remove the gray wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species. The livestock associations added, however, that Mexican wolves in the Southwest should also be delisted. In their announcement, FWS stated the Mexican wolf will remain on the list of endangered species.

The wolf, placed on the list of endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) over three decades ago, has far surpassed FWS recovery goals across the country, according to NCBA President and Wyoming rancher, Scott George. He added that, unlike most other species listed under the ESA, wolves pose a serious threat to wildlife, humans and private property, especially livestock.

“It’s time to turn management over to the states,” said George. “Wolf depredation of livestock is increasing to untenable levels in areas where wolves are still protected. We were given relief in Wyoming when it was finally delisted here. It’s only fair to allow all producers across the country that same relief.”

According to FWS, the proposal to delist the gray wolf comes after a “comprehensive review confirmed its successful recovery following management actions undertaken by federal, state and local partners.” However, FWS added that it intends to maintain protection status and expand recovery efforts for the Mexican wolf in the Southwest.

PLC President Brice Lee, a rancher from Colorado, said that wolves in the Southwest have also recovered and do not warrant federal protection.

“The wolf population in Arizona and New Mexico has almost doubled in the last three years, thanks to the work of the state fish and game departments,” Lee said. “We feel that at a certain point, it’s possible to over-study and over-capture these animals. It’s time to stop with these government studies and allow them be truly wild, while the state departments continue their successful management.”

Lee stated that the FWS does not have the resources to continue managing the wolf as endangered, let alone compensate ranchers for their losses. Studies have shown, he said, that for every confirmed kill of livestock there are seven to eight that go unconfirmed.

“We appreciate FWS’ recognition that the gray wolf is recovered,” George stated. “But it’s also time to end the unwarranted listing of Mexican wolf. Wolf depredation threatens ranchers’ livelihoods and rural communities, as well as the economies relying on a profitable agricultural industry.”
– See more at: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/210839191.html#sthash.NesEph7B.dpuf

 

 

Salt Lake Tribune Extols Value of wolves

Posted on by
5

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/56437820-82/wolf-gray-wolves-management.html.csp

Value of wolves

Feds must maintain some oversight

Jun 10 2013

The image of the government declaring “Mission Accomplished” is etched in Americans’ minds, and not in a good way. Just as former President George W. Bush was wrong when he made that announcement about the Iraq war, the feds might well be wrong in declaring the gray wolf no longer in need of protection in the West.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the mission of recovering populations of the gray wolf, which once roamed throughout the United States, has been successful, and the top predator can now fend for himself. Considering that the illogical and irrational attitudes toward the wolf that resulted in its extermination in the West nearly a century ago remain, the agency may be acting too soon.

The FWS has concluded the current number of gray wolves in the lower 48 states no longer qualifies it for listing under the Endangered Species Act, but rightly recommended the Mexican gray wolf remain listed as an endangered subspecies.

The FWS will open a 90-day comment period on the proposal to seek additional scientific, commercial and technical information.

Advocates for delisting the wolf say management decisions should be made at the state level, not by federal agencies, now that the reintroduction process is complete. The problem with state-level decisions is that in the minds of many officials, “management” of the wolf is synonymous with “eradicating” the animal. For example, Wyoming’s proposed management plan essentially allowed anyone to shoot any wolf on sight for any reason. That’s not management.

Maintaining wildlife populations for human hunters and protecting livestock are the primary objectives of most local officials and ranchers, who still see the wolf as, at best, an unnecessary nuisance, and, at worst, an evil demon bent on wiping out whole herds of cattle and sheep. In reality, wolves improve the ecosystems they share with elk, moose and deer, as scientific research has shown in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem since their reintroduction.

Ranchers are compensated for livestock predation by wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Will that compensation be continued if the predators are delisted? If not, and even in some cases if so, it will be open season on wolves wherever livestock graze.

The recovery of the gray wolf in the West is a dramatic success story. When the animal is delisted as an endangered species, the federal government should continue to monitor its management by states, or it could disappear once again.

Wildlife Photography Copyright Jim Robertson

Wildlife Photography Copyright Jim Robertson