Wolves Stripped of Protections Today

Ed Bangs may be sipping Champagne and celebrating the fact that today marks the Bush administration's stripping of protections from the Northern Rockies gray wolf, but placing the species future surivival in the Northern Rockies at the mercy of insufficient or hostile state management plans is a poor cause for celebration.  Wyoming’s plan, the worst of the bunch, amounts to open season on wolves, which can now be shot on sight for no reason in 88% of the state – at least five wolf packs live in the shoot-on-site zone, and 10 more packs may drift in and out of this area. 

This is a major setback for both wolves and the spirit of coexistence and conservation in the West.  Intentionally vague language in the Idaho and Wyoming management plans means that wolves can be killed without justification.  This ill conceived delisting plan risks ending up right back where we started, with wolves back on the endangered species list and under federal control because these plans permit wolf populations in the Northern Rockies to dramatically decline, eliminating any likelihood of establishing firm connections with Canadian wolf populations or promoting the establishment of wolf populations in other states such as Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Colorado.

It’s taken 13 years for the wolf population to grow strong enough in numbers to expand into more of their historic range in Utah, Colorado and Oregon. Delisting at this point threatens to literally stop these wolves in their tracks. 

I will follow the actions of the states closely during this period and look to the court for hope of reversing this politically expedient but biologically unstable delisting scheme.

Comments

[packof3]

This is terrible! Luckily, Defenders of Wildlife and others will start their case in court on April 28th. Hopefully, wolves will get their protection back soon, as they deserve.

[wolfgang]

OMG!!!OMG!!!!OMG!!!!!How dare they take the wolf off the list!!!!This is beyond ridiculous and I am so far beyond angry and shocked that there is no point in trying to explain it......What is going on????What have we spent the last thirty-five years doing????Fattening up the forests so that hunters can have another blood and fur fest at the wolves expense????Do you have a right to protect yourself and what is yours??Of course you do....Do you have a right to exterminate a species we have trying to save for over a quarter of a century????For god sake NO!!!IT'S LUDACRIS!!!!!

I've never been very political...I try to help the creatures I can and try to steer clear of humans if I can...But this has crossed the line!!!It is a slap in the face to the countless numbers of people whose hard-work and determination has brought these creatures back from the dead...literally....Have we learned nothing??Is not the very definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over expecting different results???

A large scale protest needs to be formed...I don't where, or what, or anything...But we have got to stand up and say not just no but H#$% NO!!!!NO YOU WON'T!!!DON'T YOU DARE!!!!YOU PUT THE WOLF BACK ON THE LIST WHERE IT BELONGS!!!!YOU WILL NOT SET AMERICA BACK FORTY YEARS!!!!
I am shocked and sickened by this....words simply cannot express....