Conservation Center Decries Move To Lessen Gray Wolf Protection

Gray wolves in the lower 48 states may soon no longer have federal endangered species protections if the Trump administration gets it way. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that it will restart the process of removing wolves from the Endangered Species Act.

The proposal should be officially published, agency officials said, in the federal register within days, the Duluth News Tribune reported.

A spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the gray wolf's recovery under the Endangered Species Act was a conservation success.

"Once the proposed rule has published in the federal register, the public will have an opportunity to comment," mitchellrepublic.com said.

President Trump's administration is not the first to pursue such an action. The Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations also tried.

Maggie Howell, executive director of North Salem-based Wolf Conservation Center, said that wolves once ranged across most of North America and were a vital part of many varied ecosystems.

"But an unremitting slaughter by humans brought wolves to the brink of extinction," she said. "The Endangered Species Act gave us a second chance to right this wrong."

Howell said that with ESA protections and the support of the American public, the wolf was able to return to portions of its native range.

In areas where wolves began to recover, like the northern Rocky Mountain states and western Great Lakes states, scientists have noted more diverse plant and wildlife thriving where they had been suppressed for decades, she said.

"Losing federal ESA protections would also have deadly implications for wolves: in just the last few years, thousands of wolves have been shot or trapped in states where protections were temporarily or permanently lifted," Howell said.

"The ESA let our country give wolves a second chance" she said. "With second chances so hard to come by, should we be willing to throw them away?"

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