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Congress’ Latest Ploy to Remove Protections for Gray Wolves:
You’d think the bill Congress drafted to fund the Department of the Interior
(DOI) in 2016 would do just that. Unfortunately, in addition to laying out the
2016 budget for DOI, this bill also contains over 20 anti-environmental
riders aimed at weakening the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Clean Water
Act and Clean Air Act. One
of the most egregious riders to this funding bill would require DOI to delist
gray
wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes states. This type of back-door
policy follows a familiar pattern. In 2011, an amendment to remove federal
protections for wolves in Idaho, Montana and parts of Washington and Oregon was
attached to a key appropriations bill, and it led to wolves’ delisting in those
states. While the 2011 wolf delisting was the first time Congress succeeded in
legislatively delisting a species from the Endangered Species Act, today,
proposing to remove ESA protections for particular species seems to be a
favorite pastime for anti-wildlife members of Congress. This is the fourth
proposal introduced since January to remove federal protections for wolves in
select states. We oppose all congressional attempts to interfere with the
species listing process. You can help us by also telling Congress decisions about wolf recovery are
based upon biological and scientific considerations alone, and not politics.
Arizona Fish and Game Department’s latest Attempt to Undermine Wolf
Recovery: This week Arizona Game and Fish Department filed a lawsuit
against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
requesting the agency update its recovery plan for endangered Mexican gray wolves. Defenders filed suit seeking a
recovery plan last fall, so you might think this is good news… not so fast!
While both Defenders and the state of Arizona want the same thing, a recovery
plan, we differ on what that recovery looks like with regard to numbers and
distribution of wolves. Our position is based on the peer-reviewed science of
the previously convened Mexican gray wolf recovery science team, while Arizona
is dismissing this science and saying that environmental groups are “requesting
a resolution in an unreasonable timeframe.” It has now been 39 years since
Mexican gray wolves were listed under the ESA, and they are still waiting for a
recovery plan – now that’s an unreasonable timeframe! The truth is the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has all the information they need to develop a recovery
plan in a matter of months. Arizona’s lawsuit is all about getting a seat at the
table to take pot shots at peer-reviewed science, slow down recovery, and limit
the number of wolves in Arizona. For these wolves to recover in the wild, it is
critical that the Fish and Wildlife Service complete and implement the
science-based recovery plan, and not kowtow to states looking for ways to give
fewer protections to Mexican gray wolves.
The post Wolf Weekly Wrap-Up appeared first on Defenders of Wildlife Blog.
We
told you this could be the most anti-wildlife Congress in recent memory.
But
it’s even worse than we feared.
The
House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee has released an appropriations bill
that is bursting with anti-wildlife provisions affecting wolves and other
imperiled wildlife.
If these shocking provisions become
law, it would be a death sentence for countless wolves and could
set our nation’s wildlife conservation efforts back by decades.
Just
consider some of the damage these provisions would do:
A
death warrant for wolves. One proposed measure would force gray
wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes off the Endangered Species List. Once
again, these majestic animals’ fates would lie in the hands of states intent on
dramatically driving down wolf populations. That’s a veritable death sentence
for hundreds, if not thousands of wolves. In the last year alone, more than 700
wolves were killed in the states covered by this provision.
A
blind eye to elephant poaching and ivory smuggling. At a time when
the massacre of elephants for their ivory has reached epidemic proportions, the
House bill would block efforts by the Fish and Wildlife Service to impose
tougher restrictions on the importation and domestic sale of ivory – efforts
that are necessary to prevent illegally smuggled ivory from being laundered into
commercial trade. Today, an elephant falls to a poacher’s bullet every 15
minutes in Africa. This NRA-supported measure is a giant step in the wrong
direction. All this proposal
does is benefit elephant poachers and ivory smugglers at the cost of elephant
lives.
A
savage attack on the ESA. Yet another provision would prohibit a
potential listing of the greater sage-grouse – an imperiled bird that has waited
more than a decade for a listing decision.
In
addition to these despicable appropriations provisions, there have already been
more than 50 amendments or bills introduced by Congress aimed at gutting the
Endangered Species Act.
These
legislative proposals are the product of special interest lobbying and political
extremism. They are wildly out
of touch with what most Americans want and believe.
Thank
you so much for your partnership on behalf of America’s wildlife.
House bill proposes moving wolves off endangered list.
The provision, called a rider, was included in the bill as it was introduced Tuesday. Wolves in the western Great Lakes area — Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan — were removed from federal protections in 2011 after their numbers rebounded. But a December federal court order placed wolves back under federal care, ending state-sanctioned hunting and trapping seasons. The new legislation would give wolf management back to states and tribes and end federal protections. The current effort is similar to a 2011 bill that delisted wolves in Montana despite court action. That bill passed and was signed into law. Wolf advocacy groups railed against the provision, saying Congress should stay out of the science of wildlife management. "This is another cynical attack on science and the Endangered Species Act that will result in wolves being mindlessly slaughtered in the few places where they have begun to recover," said Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The new bill also prohibits the federal government from taking any further action to protect endangered sage grouse in western states. Several Minnesota lawmakers have said they would support legislation to remove federal wolf protections.  Those numbers are already outdated. Another 29 wolves were reportedly killed in the 2014–2015 hunting and trapping season. The figures were reported in a brief written by U.S. Forest Service officials who worked with Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game to update the region’s wolf population estimates. The final report is expected to be released by the end of the week, but the early summary has prompted conservationists to call for an expedited endangered species listing for the reclusive subspecies. “You’re talking about an animal that is so hard for the researchers to find that they’ve only radio collared two in the past two years to study,” said Larry Edwards, forest campaigner with Greenpeace in Sitka, Alaska. “They need protections now, before it’s too late.” The Alexander Archipelago wolf range includes the entire 500-mile-long, 120-mile-wide Alaskan panhandle, and the animals mostly stay in the dense tree cover provided by the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest. A majority of the wolves live on Prince of Wales Island. Some scientists believe they could be their own genetically distinct wolf subset. Instead of trapping and counting the wolves, researchers placed hair trap snags—wood boards with barbed wire attached—in a section of the Tongass to determine the population. The scented boards attract the wolves, which rub against them and leave hair follicles behind. Scientists retrieve the hair and extrapolate how many wolves are in the area based on how many different hair samples are left behind and how frequently the wolves return. In 1994, an estimated 900 wolves roamed southeast Alaska, and the Prince of Wales Island population was estimated to be 300 to 350. Today, the population is estimated at 60. The news comes as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service studies whether the Alexander Archipelago wolf should be listed as an endangered species. The agency is expected to make a decision by the end of 2015. If the wolf is listed, stronger protections for its habitat will go into effect, and hunting and trapping will be restricted. Wayne Owen, a U.S. Forest Service regional director, said a listing would mean more regulatory hurdles for future development and logging operations in the national forest. So, Why Should You Care? The Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service for not adequately protecting the old-growth forests in Tongass from logging. Wolves den in the root systems of 800-year-old western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Alaska cedar trees. The wolves’ main prey—Sitka black-tailed deer—rely on the trees for shelter from heavy snow during the winter. “What the report shows is that the habitat is not the issue—the issue right now is the undocumented take,” Owen said. “People are hunting and trapping [the wolves] and not reporting that.” In 2012, Alaskan game officials reduced the percentage of wolves that could be killed for hunting and trapping from 30 percent of the population each year to 20 percent. But that hasn’t reversed the decline. “We definitely see these figures having an impact on the upcoming hunting season,” said Ryan Scott, Alaska Fish and Game’s southeast regional director. “These are estimates based on a sample study area, so you have to take it with a grain of salt; we don’t know if it means declines across the whole range.” But for Edwards at Greenpeace, waiting is no longer an option. “We’ve been trying to get this wolf listed as endangered since 1994. There’s no more time to waste,” he said. Please act today to defend the Endangered Species Act! Members of Congress in the pocket of destructive industries sneakily attached riders to defense and budget legislation. These riders would prohibit protections for the imperiled greater sage grouse, gut safeguards for the lesser prairie chicken, limit recovery of the northern long-eared bat and strip away protections for wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes. Stop the Congressional Assault on our Endangered Wildlife Tell your Senators and President Obama that science, not politics and greed, should guide the fate of our nation’s most imperiled species. For over 40 years, the Endangered Species Act has successfully protected our most imperiled wildlife by implementing safeguards based on science not politics for wolves, grizzlies, bald eagles and other native species. The attacks on the law would be laughable if they weren’t so serious. Claiming that somehow protecting the lesser prairie chicken undermines our national security is not only absurd; it is an abuse of power.  These backhanded assaults on the bedrock of our nation’s most important wildlife protection law are dangerous and a recipe for extinction for countless unique, beautiful and rare animals and plants. They must be stopped. Congress needs to hear from you and the large majority of Americans who support protecting endangered species. Write your Senators and the White House today. Take two extra minutes and call them too. Join us in telling our elected leaders to keep their hands off the Endangered Species Act. Wolves In The Lower-48 States Need Your HelpProtect wolves from brutal hunting, trapping, and poisoning!
Goal: 30,000 • Progress: 24,999
Sponsored by: Earthjustice
Help ensure continued protections for wolves across the lower-48 states! You can make a difference by writing to Obama administration officials to urge them not to drop federal protections for wolves across much of the United States.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed lifting federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across nearly the entire lower-48 states. This would be a disastrous setback for gray wolf recovery in the United States.
The recovery of gray wolves is an American success story, from their reintroduction in the northern Rocky Mountains to their comeback in the western Great Lakes states. But there are few, if any, gray wolves in the vast majority of their former range. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes gray wolf federal protections, wolves in the Pacific Northwest, California, the southern Rocky Mountains, and the Northeast will face even more difficult odds than they do already.
It is critical that the administration not proceed with a blanket national delisting of the gray wolf, when wolves are still missing across so much of the U.S. landscape.
Urge President Obama and Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell to maintain protections for gray wolves in the lower-48 states.
Halt the Killing of Denali National Park Wolves
180,000
we've got 179,309 signatures, help us get to 180,000 by July 4, 2015
Update #2 June 8, 2015full update ▾Update #1 May 8, 2015full update ▾About this Petition
The wolf population in Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve has plummeted to its lowest level in the park's historical record, due in part to wolf hunting and trapping inside the park and on state lands along the park boundary. Along with Yellowstone, Denali used to be the best place in the world to observe wolves in the wild - but sighting a wolf today is rare. We are calling on U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to immediately halt all wolf killing inside Denali park, and secure a permanent no-kill buffer along the park boundary from the State of Alaska.
Denali National Park, a six-million-acre International Biosphere Reserve, is visited by over 500,000 people from all over the world each year. These visitors come to see North America’s highest peak, its wilderness, and its wildlife—especially wolves.
However, while almost half the visitors to the park used to see wolves, now only about six percent do. The wolf population has dwindled from 143 to 48 in seven years. These losses have not only diminished the chance to see wild wolves, but have also undercut the integrity of the entire ecosystem—much of which is designated wilderness. While the park’s primary purpose is to “protect intact the globally significant Denali ecosystems,” it is failing to do so.
Sign the petition to the Secretary of the Interior to help save these wolves immediately!
Unlike most national parks, hunting and trapping is allowed on many Alaska national park lands - a political concession made in 1980. In addition, as wolves and other wildlife cross invisible park boundaries onto state lands, they are hunted and trapped for “sport” by a few local residents.
The continued killing of Denali wolves has severely disrupted family group integrity, behavior, continuity, and ecology. Unlike deaths from natural causes, hunting and trapping most often kill alpha wolves, whose deaths frequently lead to the disintegration of the entire family group. In 2012, the trapping of the pregnant alpha female wolf from the Grant Creek group—who were most often seen by visitors—led to the group declining from 15 wolves to only 3 that summer.
Subsequent losses to wolf family groups contributed to a decrease in wildlife viewing that is perhaps unprecedented in the history of the entire U.S. national park system. As a result, hundreds of thousands of tourists have been deprived the extraordinary opportunity to see wolves in the wild.
Both the Park Service and the State of Alaska have denied repeated public petitions in the past seven years asking for a halt to wolf killing in and around Denali. Meanwhile, wolves continue to vanish from one of the nation’s largest and most iconic national parks.
We therefore call on Secretary Jewell to immediately do two things:
1. Order the superintendent of Denali National Park to close all wolf killing in the entire park and preserve, and;
2. Acquire a permanent wolf buffer conservation easement from the State of Alaska along the northeastern boundary of Denali, where most hunting and trapping occurs. This easement can either be purchased by the U.S. government, or transferred from the state in exchange for an equal-valued federal easement or asset elsewhere.
If you'd like to learn more about Denali's famous wolf family groups, check out our book, Among Wolves.
And, after signing the petition, please also consider contacting these officials directly:
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewel: secretary@ios.doi.gov
Superintendent of Denali National Park Don Striker: don_striker@nps.gov
Alaska Governor Bill Walker: governor@alaska.gov
Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten: sam.cotten@alaska.gov
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