US planning to lift endangered species protections for gray wolves

The Director of United States Fish and Wildlife Service on August 31 said that the Donald Trump administration is planning to lift the endangered species protection tag from Gray wolves by the end of the year. While talking to news agency Associated Press Aurelia Skipwith, Director of fish and wildlife service said “We’re working hard to have this done by the end of the year and I’d say it’s very imminent.”

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Last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed dropping the wolf from the endangered list in the lower 48 states, exempting a small population of Mexican wolves in the Southwest. It was the latest of numerous attempts to return management authority to the states moves that courts have repeatedly rejected after opponents filed lawsuits.

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Because of mass hunting, wolves population came near to extinction in the last century, wolves in recent decades rebounded in the western Great Lakes region and portions of the West, the total population exceeding 6,000. They have been removed from the endangered list in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and portions of Oregon, Utah, and Washington state.

Wolf has biologically recovered

A federal judge in 2014 restored protection for the animals in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, a decision upheld by an appeals court in 2017. Skipwith, echoing the Fish and Wildlife Service’s long-held policy, told the AP the wolf has “biologically recovered” and that its removal from the list would demonstrate the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act. But the Humane Society of the United States and other wildlife protection groups contend wolves are still vulnerable. Dropping protections across the Lower 48 would doom any chances of their spreading to other states where they could thrive if humans allowed it, they say.

(With input from AP) 

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