Gray wolves scheduled to lose federal endangered species protection next month

The decision to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered species list, announced shortly before President Bush left office and confirmed by the Obama administration last month, is one step closer to taking effect after being published in the Federal Register last week. 

The delisting is scheduled to take effect May 2 and will apply to wolf populations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Idaho and Montana, and parts of Utah, Washington and Oregon.  Gray wolves will retain Endangered Species Act protection in Wyoming, where Interior Department officials say recovery efforts have been insufficient.

Delisting transfers the duties of wolf population management from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to state and tribal agencies.  In at least one of those -- the state of Idaho -- the wolves will become legal targets for hunters in short order.  Our colleague Kelly Burgess at the Outposts blog writes:

Idaho Fish and Game commissioners have already adopted dates for the wolf hunting season in the state and will set quotas once delisting takes effect.

"We have to move on and manage them similar to other big-game animals," Idaho Fish and Game Director Cal Groen said. "This is good news for wolves, elk, rural communities and hunters. I believe this action will help defuse the animosity and anger associated with wolves when we can manage wolves in concert with our other big game species."

The Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor the delisted wolf populations for a minimum of five years to ensure that they continue to sustain their recovery.  At the end of that time, it will be decided if relisting, continued monitoring or ending service monitoring is appropriate.

Idaho governor C. L. "Butch" Otter has said he supports reducing his state's wolf population from its current level of around 800 animals to 100.  "I'm prepared to bid for the first ticket [hunting license] to shoot a wolf myself," he once said.

--Lindsay Barnett

Photo: A gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn.

 Credit: Dawn Villella / Associated Press.

Comments

[Donovan Seymour]

What is wrong with people? Do people really have that short of an attention span, I mean, there is no justification for this, In a few years the'll go back onto the endangered list again. why do people not understand that these are not creatures to expend.

[karen lyons kalmenson]

put away your rifles
put away your guns
killing wolves
should not be
your kind of fun:(

[TLM]

Your quote from our governor is out of date, out of context and slanders our wolf management plan.

You folks have no idea what its like to live with a pack of wolves in your back yard! There are too many wolves for our habitat to support. We are tired of constantly being on guard awaiting the next wolf attack. DoW doesn't compensate us for vet bills and dead animals, only ranchers get that "privilege" for having their animals torn to pieces.

Wolves belong in the wilderness - not in subdivisions!

[Rochelle]

@ TLM: Perhaps if developers would stop encroaching on wolf territory then perhaps this wouldn't be such an issue.

[Cecelia Rios]

What I hope happens to all the ranchers is that people quit eating their meat and they get driven out of business then you won't have any reason to get so homicidal over predatory animals that are following their instinct to survive or flourish. Farfetched notion? We'll see in the coming generations, who hopefully have more sense than some of our peers, like PALIN----UGH!,

[Cosmic Rhino Foundation]

"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Ghandi

[sgreger]

Yes, ranchers are the biggest proponents of decimating wolf populations. In WA, we recently had one (a rancher) trap and shoot the alpha male of the only wolf family we've had for generations. The genius tried to ship the bloody wolf pelt to Canada. So, yes, I agree with Cecilia - and I think people are already cutting way down on their red meat. As far as the ranchers go, they just whine. They get to use public lands for free grazing, they let their fences fall into disrepair, their animals trample our private land and crap in our rivers...and they whine about the wolves. Eat more chicken and pork.

Living with a wolf pack? When WA had more trees, we lost pets to coyotes all the time. As heartbreaking as it is, it is possible to take it in stride. Or move to the city and get a Chiuaua. IMO, the worst people are those who move into remote areas and then complain about wild animals. The most dangerous animals are those who walk on two legs.

[Ridahoan]

I would never hunt wolves, unless, perhaps, I was a rancher and a particular wolf was causing undue trouble, but it may not be a bad idea to manage them as game animals in the states where hunting can be done sustainably. It will not be long before hunters' wish to shoot wolves will balance the fears of ranchers and the indignation of those westerners to whom hatred of wolves has become a litmus test for belonging to the 'right' side of the cultural divide. In the long run, keeping large carnivores afraid of people in most rural country seems to be in everyone's best interest, and hunting is one way of encouraging it.

My fear, however, is that this is a purely politically driven decision, as in the last decade politics have overtaken science in almost all major decisions from the big bureaucracies in charge of managing and protecting our natural resources. It seems silly that the small numbers of wolves in Oregon, for instance, could be considered sustainable.

[Kay Clark]

Wake up city-ites. The wolves are eating your wildlife to extinction. One elk herd alone has drastically dropped from a great herd of 22,000 down to only 6,000 in a matter of the last 6 years. Figure for yourself what is the future. The moose have dropped to where you seldom see one where there were once family groups of 4-10. The reason ranchers are complaining is because the wolves have less and less wildlife to devour. Once the wolf's main source of food is gone, they'll be exterminated...so what is the problem with tryig to keep them managed for the benefit to keep all species at good numbers now? We enjoy the backcountry, but I'm not giving up my grandchildren to a wolf, when as a family we have been able to see and enjoy the mountains and the wildlife that they contain. We've put money back to preserving all wildlife over the last 25 years so why should I give up something that my family and my forefathers have enjoyed? You may never see other wildlife if this wolf mania continues in our wonderful Yellowstone Park. Do the math...biologists say that one wolf eats 24 elk per year. The elk aren't reproducing because the wolves keep them at a high stress level because they want to survive, too, and in many elk herds they are only reproducing a 3% calf crop. Why are you letting the other wildlife populations struggle?

[Judy McMullen]

I don't know where you are getting your figures, but according to Yellowstone Nat'l Park website, "Computer modeling of population dynamics on the northern winter range predicts that 75 wolves would kill 1,000 elk per winter, but that elk would be able to maintain their populations under this level of predation, and with only a slight decrease in hunter harvest." According to Environmental News Network, a study is ongoing to determine the cause of declining moose populations. It may well be due to the fact that it is legal for people to hunt them. Also, Defenders of Wildlife and it's members, like me, are not just concerned with the wolf population, but also that of other wildlife. It is actually human's fault that wolves, coyotes, etc. are becoming so acclimated to people. It is our responsibility to create a balance. Wolves just always seem to get a bad rep.

[Justin Forte]

So much for the change we were promised. I guess special hunting interests who exploit wildlife for their own selfish interests mean more to the government than the general public, science, or the welfare of our nation's wildlife. This is even more proof why their needs to be a movement to ban trophy hunting started. Personally, I think should also be a petition started to have Ken Salazar fired from his position as Secretary Of The Interior. It baffles me how President Obama said that he acknowledged the link between animal abuse and violent behavior in humans and that his administration would be a more humane administration toward animals while he was running for President. Now he is going to condone a form of animal abuse and exploitation because cowboy Ken Salazar wants to pander to his cowboy buddies! Obama betrayed many of his biggest supporters and broke his promise the day he picked Ken Salazar to be Secretary Of The Interior. Trusting a cowboy to protect wolves and wildlife is like trusting Michael Vick to care for dogs! President Obama, betrayed many of his biggest supporters for special interests! I am starting to believe President Obama is nothing more than a hypocrit like the rest of them! Prove me wrong President Obama, and Keep the wolves protected and on The Endangered Species List!

I have noticed some of the comments made by some of the anti wolf people talking about how the wolves need to be killed in mass because there are too many wolves, that they are eating all the elk (which is totally bogus) etc., and that almost no wolves at all is an acceptable wolf population. They couldn't be more wrong. At least the comments made by the anti wolf people about this article are mild compared to other posts I have seen by wolf haters on the internet. With the borderline psychotic comments made by these anti wolf people, and their desire to torture and kill a wolf just because its a wolf, and their desire to do that to any animal out of hate or for amusement is a clear demonstration of how deeply disturbed these people truly are. These people seriously need psychiatric therapy.

I am sure many of these anti wolf morons are members or supporters of The anti wolf coalition. The anti wolf coalition is an extremist hate group directed at wolves for downright psychotic reasons and the group is based on fabricated stories, ignorance, and propaganda. The group's leader Ron Gillett, is a psychotic woman beater who physically assaulted a female wolf activist last year.

The lies, excuses, and propaganda made up by these hunters and anti wolf people is obsured! I can actually debunk some of their claims right now; The wolves that were reintroduced are from Canada so they are not a native species to The U.S? Reality check, Canada and The U.S are part of The North American continent, therefore the wolves are a native species. The wolves were illegally reintroduced? Reality check again, wolves were reintroduced after the majority of the public supported it. Wolves kill for sport? Yet another reality check to the anti wolf morons, wolves will sometimes leave or stash a kill to come back to it and eat it later on when they need it. They especially do this in harsh cold weather when prey is hard to find. I might also like to add that I was told by a couple of my friends in Idaho, that in order to make it look like wolves kill for sport, members of the Anti Wolf Coalition and others actively track and look for packs of wolves who just barely made a kill, scare them off from their prey before they can finish eating it, and take pictures of the kill to make it appear that the wolves killed out of sport and not for the real reason which is food. After doing so, they use the pictures for their anti wolf propaganda. Wolves are posing a threat to the elk population and they need to be killed in mass numbers to save the elk? This is nothing more than propaganda made by hunting interests because the hunters just want to have their way. They don't want to kill the wolves to save the elk or because the wolf population needs to be controlled because it is too large, the real reason is because hunters want to manipulate the wildlife populations for their own selfish interests. This is among the many reasons why hunting needs to be banned. I also want to add that while wolves take the weaker elk which allows the stronger elk to breed creating a healthier gene pool in the elk population, hunters take the stronger and healthier elk with the biggest racks for their grotesque trophies causing the weaker elk to breed and produce weaker and sicklier offspring. So if anyone is detrimental to elk and wildlife populations, its hunters. USFWS also needs to stop putting hunting interests above the welfare of wildlife for the sake of revenue and profit. Hunters make up a very small margin of the public so their dictatorship about how wildlife is to be managed and treated above everyone else's needs to be stopped. All trophy hunting needs to be banned period. As for livestock losses, wolves are responsible for less than 5% of livestock losses compared to other factors pertaining to livestock losses. Ranchers lose a heck of a lot more stock to other factors but when it’s a wolf they lose stock to, all of a sudden it’s the end of the world! Their lively hood is at stake! Give me a break!

There are also many new breakthroughs in non lethal predator deterrants that are designed to keep wolves and other predators away from livestock. These deterrants are becoming more available with increasing success. Also, not all ranchers are anti wolf people. One such ranching operation in New Mexico (where wolves were reintroduced in 1998), uses non leathal predator deterrants and markets their beef with a wolf friendly label. Because of this, the family who runs this ranching operation has been shunned by their neighbors, have been harassed by other members of the ranching community, have been kicked out of the Cattle Growers Association, have received death threats from anti wolf psychos, and even had their names put on an internet hit list. Just because they choose to co exist with wolves. Also, in order to exagerrate the numbers of livestock losses to wolves, certain ranchers were actually caught purposely baiting wolves with their own livestock to make it look like the wolves are a problem to push for this bogus de-listing. So these anti wolf people aren't fooling anyone!

I also happen to work with wolves at a wolf sanctuary and I have been reading, researching, and learning about wolves since I was 12 years old. Anyway, I hope this bogus de-listing of the wolves from The Endangered Species List can yet again be overturned in the Federal Court and I also hope and pray that the wolves will be saved.

[Elizabeth]

another government mistake... what a surprise. Yeah, wolves kill livestock, but so do we. Wolf kills your livestock? Act of providence I say. They need to eat and so do we. Not their fault livestock makes an easy target, you'd go for it too if you were them. After all, we killed off dodos because they were easy targets. Maybe instead of wasting government money on stupid things that don't benefit anyone besides a small group of rich people, it should be spent on providing farmers with better fences, after all, economic stimulus if you ask me, keeps farmers in business without murdering animals that are only acting in the way God made them to.

[Kate]

I am currently writeing a book and i would like to use this pic as the cover...now, i am not sur if the book will be published but it has a good chance. I am new to writing but my family has writen books of publishment before. the book is called "in a wolfs paws" please consider.

thank you,
Kate

[Lindsay Barnett, L.A. Times]

Hey Kate, since the photo you mention is from the Associated Press and not the L.A. Times, we wouldn't have the right to give you permission. If you're interested in pursuing it, I'd contact the AP for more info. Hope that helps and good luck!