In a victory for wolves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently denied two petitions filed by trophy hunting organizations aimed at removing federal Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Western Great Lakes region and reducing or removing protections for wolves in other areas of the lower 48 states.
Wolves (outside of the Northern Rocky Mountain region) remain safely protected—at least for now. But the attempt to remove their protections continues, and it is multipronged: We are still in court fighting the Fish and Wildlife Service’s most recent attempt to delist wolves nationwide, a policy the agency is trying to reinstate through a meritless appeal. And we’ve brought a separate lawsuit seeking to restore desperately needed protections to wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains, where they face extreme levels of state-sponsored killing.
Under the critical safeguards of the Endangered Species Act, wolves have made encouraging progress. Yet, the species remains absent from most of its historic range, including vast swaths of currently suitable habitat. Additionally, the Endangered Species Act does not consider population numbers in isolation—the Fish and Wildlife Service must also take account of factors such as threats to habitat, the inadequacy of existing rules and regulations and other threats.
And wolves are indeed facing many threats. Even with the federal protections in place, in some ranges with wolf populations, the motto of “shoot, shovel and shut up” can be seen on bumper stickers and window signs, showing that old hatreds persist. Last summer, in a particularly horrific example, a wolf was deliberately struck with a snowmobile and tormented in a bar in Wyoming before being shot to death, sparking public outcry.
