I wish I had something more eloquent to say except “Huh?”
February 26th, 2008 by Matt
Here’s a “Huzzah!” or two for the gray wolves. Why, pray tell? Well, give me a second, for crying out loud. According to the Associated Press:
Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies will be removed from the endangered species list, following a 13-year restoration effort that helped the animal’s population soar, federal officials said Thursday.
An estimated 1,500 wolves now roam Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. That represents a dramatic turnaround for a predator that was largely exterminated in the United States in the early 20th century.
Great, right? The Endangered Species Program works. That’s great, right? Right? Ummm:
The loss of federal protection allows the three states to move forward with plans allowing hunters to target the animals, possibly as soon as this fall.
Damn it. And we were this close to good news.
Thankfully, an organization called Earth Justice is suing the feds to keep the wolves protected. Here’s their take:
Gray wolves have come perilously close to extinction in the Rocky Mountains. Only in the past decade has the wolf population rebounded from a population of less than 50 to more than 1,300 wolves today. Visitors come to Yellowstone every year to get the chance to see and hear wolves in the wild.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued two rules that would not only reverse these hard-won gains, by killing hundreds of these magnificent predators. One rule would remove gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains from protection under the Endangered Species Act. The other rule would allow states in the Northern Rockies to kill wolves whenever wolves had impacts on wild ungulate populations.
The governors of Idaho and Wyoming express outright hostility toward wolves, and numerous counties in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have adopted resolutions declaring wolves an “unacceptable species.” Once wolves are delisted, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana could reduce wolf populations to a paltry 100 wolves per state — in other words, they could destroy 1,000 wolves out of the current 1,300-wolf population.
We’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: this, this right here, is yet another example of why the government can’t be trusted to behave, and why it must be watched closely as the toddler it is by its citizens.
We’ll post more about this particular issue as it develops.
Photo c/o this dude.
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