Wolf Weekly Wrap Up

The state government with the highest body count of wolves in the West has unleashed a new round of aerial killing. Once again, the purpose is to artificially inflate elk numbers for sport hunters and boost the sale of elk hunting licenses. And once again, the killing is happening on public land.
The deeply disturbing actions by the Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services agency working on behalf of the state of Idaho must stop. And the U.S. Forest Service is letting it happen on its land! It’s now up to the federal government to put the brakes on Idaho’s vendetta against wolves.

Since Congress prematurely forced Idaho's wolves off the endangered species list in 2011, more than 1,900 wolves have been killed in that state.

Stop Aerial Wolf Slaughter In Idaho.

Conservationists and citizens alike are outraged by the aerial wolf hunts happening in Idaho.  This slaughter is being done under the auspices of protecting elk populations, but there is just one problem: the elk populations were already decreasing before wolves were even reintroduced to the area. The real culprit is habitat change. 

The hunts are also being allowed based on wolf population numbers. The journal Science called into question the accuracy of these numbers, and several conservation groups are calling for the hunts to be halted until the US Fish and Wildlife Service can monitor the wolf populations for another 5 years.

The biodiversity and ecosystem of our country shouldn’t suffer because of bad science and policy. It’s time for the Idaho Wolf Control Board to stop the aerial hunts until a definitive 5-year study is completed.  

Watch this to be more informed about the affect of wolves in ecology: http://youtu.be/ysa5OBhXz-Q. Click Here To Help!

Tell Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack to rein in Idaho’s wolf killing! Goal: 25,000 • Progress: 9,847 - Click Here To Help!

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Help Protect America's Wolves

Help Protect America's Wolves
In 2014 the Center for Biological Diversity and allies went to court and proved that the state of Wyoming had failed to properly protect its wolves. We ended the state's vile "shoot-on-sight" policy and cruel trophy hunts.

But the anti-wilderness politicians weren't going to let wolves live in peace, so Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) cooked up an amendment that would overrule the courts, forcing an end to legal wolf protection and restarting the runaway killing. This amendment was attached to the deceptively named "Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2015," a catchall of terrible legislation for wildlife. In a surprise move, the act was just scheduled for a vote this Friday in the House of Representatives. We have to stop it.

The Center is leading a campaign against this legislation. We need you to donate to our war chest for wolves with a generous gift to the Predator Defense Fund.

With your support we will fight hard to kill this bill. Our team in Washington is working hard to lay out the case against the bill and win over public and political support for continued protection of Wyoming's critical wolf population, which includes many of the key families that are dispersing out of Yellowstone National Park. If this bill passes, hundreds of these wolves will be shot, trapped and poisoned.

The Center has been working to protect wolves for a quarter-century. When far-right politicians pushed through a bill ignoring the best available science and legalizing wolf hunting in 2011, we sprang into action. We've stopped the killing across much of the country, but the wolf haters are becoming more brazen and widespread in their attacks -- we just had to file suit in Oregon to stop the government from bucking public opinion and ending wolf protection there.

When politicians do the bidding of wolf-hating special interests and give way to fear, hatred and conspiracy, wolves die. We're facing down the powerful constituency dedicated to wolf destruction, but we can't do it without your support through the Predator Defense Fund.

Your donation will help our passionate legal and scientific experts win for wolves from courtrooms to statehouses to Washington, D.C., fighting the well-heeled special interests that want wolves dead on their way to dismantling American wilderness.

Give today to the Predator Defense Fund so we can use your contribution to end the killing of wolves, give them a chance to return to their ancient homelands, and help them reclaim their place as a precious part of the American wild.


Our worst fears have come to pass on Capitol Hill. And lives are at stake.
Today, the full House of Representatives passed H.R. 2406, the so-called “Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015.” The bill is loaded with some of the worst anti-wildlife provisions I have seen.
If this bill passes the Senate and is signed into law, it will be a death sentence for wolves, elephants and other vulnerable wildlife.
If this bill becomes law:
  • Wolves will die. Wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes will lose Endangered Species Act protection. The last time wolves were delisted in Wyoming, 80% of the state became a free-fire zone where anyone could shoot wolves at will.
  • Elephants will die. America’s ability to crack down on the importation and sale of illegal ivory will be crippled. This gun lobby-backed provision will send a message to the armed criminals who are decimating Africa’s last herds that the American market is still open for business.
  • Alaskan predators will die. The bill would strip the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service of the authority to bar the state of Alaska from launching a program to decimate wolves, grizzly bears and other large carnivores within national wildlife refuges and national preserves across Alaska.
  • Toxic lead will continue to contaminate wildlife habitat. The bill would prohibit federal agencies from regulating lead in most forms of ammunition and fishing tackle. In the United States, an estimated 3,000 tons of lead are shot into the environment by hunting every year, leading to the death of many animals from toxic lead poisoning.
You and I Can Stop This Insanity
We are the voice in Washington, D.C. for species that have no voice of their own. And we’re your voice too.
With your help, we’ll make sure this bill never becomes law. Our legislative team is working together with other conservation organizations to make sure the grassroots pressure to protect wildlife is unrelenting.

Lawsuit Challenges Wildlife Services' Authority to Kill Wolves in Oregon
Indiscriminate Killing is Scientifically and Ethically Bankrupt 
Additional contacts:
John Mellgren, Western Law Environmental Center, (541) 359-0990, mellgren@westernlaw.org
Nick Cady, Cascadia Wildlands, (541) 434-1463, nick@cascwild.org
Amy Atwood, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 504-5660, atwood@biologicaldiversity.org
Brooks Fahy, Predator Defense, (541) 937-4261, brooks@predatordefense.org
Camilla Fox, Project Coyote, (415) 690-0338, cfox@projectcoyote.org

PORTLAND, Ore. – Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the authority of the federal wildlife-killing program Wildlife Services to kill any of the approximately 81 remaining gray wolves in Oregon. The legal challenge, filed by the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of four conservation groups, with Cascadia Wildlands representing itself, comes weeks after a federal court ruled that Wildlife Services’ controversial wolf killing program in Washington is illegal.

The groups contend that Wildlife Services failed to explain why killing wolves on behalf of livestock interests should replace common-sense, proactive and nonlethal alternatives such as those reflected in the Oregon Gray Wolf Management Plan. The National Environmental Policy Act requires this analysis and public disclosure. In Oregon and Washington, Wildlife Services completed vague plans to target wolves for livestock depredations but did not explain why nonlethal alternatives would be inadequate.

“Federal law requires Wildlife Services to conduct a full and fair evaluation of the ecological impacts of its wolf-killing program in Oregon, and it failed to do so,” said John Mellgren, the Western Environmental Law Center attorney arguing the case. “In addition to protecting gray wolves from being killed, our recent victory in Washington will help to shed light on this secretive federal program, and we hope to continue that process in Oregon.”

A federal extermination program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services kills roughly 1.5 million to 3 million native animals per year, including wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, otters, foxes, coyotes, birds and even domestic pets — with little oversight or accountability. Wildlife Services employs inhumane tools to kill wildlife including aerial gunning, leghold traps, snares and poisons. A 2013 internal audit revealed that Wildlife Services’ accounting practices lacked transparency and violated state and federal laws.
“Wildlife Services has for decades taken advantage of a legal loophole to avoid conducting any meaningful analysis of its deplorable killing program, or any assessment of whether its programs are effective at all,” said Nick Cady, legal director at Cascadia Wildlands. “We believe if the agency truly takes a hard look at its activities, the impacts and the costs, these killing programs will be terminated.”

NEPA requires Wildlife Services to rigorously examine the environmental effects of killing wolves and to consider alternatives that rely on proven nonlethal methods like range riders, livestock-guarding dogs and shepherds, and disposing of livestock carcasses to avoid attracting wolves and other predators. In both Oregon and Washington, Wildlife Services completed vague analyses that did not consider alternatives and rejected evidence that nonlethal methods are more effective. NEPA also mandates a public comment period for the proposal.

“Oregon is no place for Wildlife Services,” said Amy Atwood, endangered species legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wildlife Services is a rogue agency that uses ineffective, cruel and costly methods to kill wolves instead of common-sense, nonlethal methods that foster coexistence.”
“Wildlife Services’ refusal to ensure its activities are based on the best available science leads to unnecessary and harmful killing and strips the public of an opportunity to meaningfully understand and contribute to decisions impacting the health of ecosystems on which we all depend,” said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians. “It's past time the dark practices of Wildlife Services are subjected to the sunshine of a transparent public process.”

Wildlife Services claims that killing wolves reduces wolf-related losses of livestock, yet recentpeer-reviewed research finds that killing wolves leads to an increase in wolf-livestock conflicts. Wildlife Services also failed to address the effects of killing wolves in Oregon, including impacts on ecosystems, wolf populations in neighboring states and on non-target animals that may be killed or injured as a result of the wolf killing program.

“It is telling that Wildlife Services was formerly called Animal Damage Control,” said Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense. “They changed their name, but nothing more. This misnomer of a program is notorious for abuse of power, lack of transparency, illegal activity and brutal treatment of wildlife. It has been criticized by members of Congress, the public and leading predator biologists. Further scrutiny of Wildlife Services’ activities in Oregon is long overdue, particularly now, as the gray wolf faces imminent delisting from state endangered species protections.”

“Wildlife Services’ predator control program is ecologically destructive, ethically indefensible and economically unjustifiable,” said Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Project Coyote. “The science is clear that killing wolves is not effective at reducing conflicts and likely exacerbates problems by destabilizing wolf social structures. How many lawsuits will it take for Wildlife Services to do what’s right?”

Wolves were driven to extinction in Oregon by the late 1940s through a government-sponsored eradication program. The species began to return to Oregon from neighboring states and Canada in the early 2000s. In 2012, wolf recovery got back on track in Oregon. It took a legal challenge, but the state’s wolf killing program (separate from Wildlife Services') was put on hold and the wolf population grew from 29 to 81. In November 2015, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission stripped Oregon’s wolves of much needed state endangered species protections. Oregon's wolves face a long road to recovery and ongoing threats — including that of being shot and killed by Wildlife Services.

John Mellgren of the Western Environmental Law Center and Nick Cady with Cascadia Wildlands represent the following organizations in the lawsuit: Cascadia Wildlands, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, Predator Defense and Project Coyote.

Download a copy of the complaint here.

Anti-wolf bill comes closer to becoming law in Oregon. A bill that legislatively delists Oregon’s wolves from the state endangered species act passed significant benchmarks in Oregon’s legislature this week, opening the door for the state legislature to make politically driven decisions about the fate of imperiled animals across the state. If the bill is approved by the full senate, it will then go to Governor Brown to be either vetoed or signed into law. Oregon’s Endangered Species Act grants the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission exclusive authority to list, delist or relist species as threatened or endangered. This bill would change that by giving Oregon’s lawmakers and politicians final say over the wolf’s status under state law instead of leaving that scientific question to scientists! Of you live in Oregon, help us by calling Governor Brown, telling her that she should veto this bill when/if it reaches her desk. Important decisions about whether to list or delist species should be based on science, not politics!
Noble Wolf, © Larry Gambon
House sportsmen’s bill is a disaster for wildlife. Today the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2406, the so-called “Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2015.” This damaging legislation contains a broad range of destructive provisions that threaten wildlife and public lands, erode bedrock environmental laws and undermine key conservation policies. Entire sections of the bill impair wildlife conservation, including sections that block efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to crack down on the illegal ivory trade, upend management of our National Wildlife Refuge System, and prohibit federal agencies from regulating toxic lead in most forms of ammunition and fishing tackle. The likely addition of harmful amendments to H.R. 2406, including an amendment that would strip gray wolves of existing protection under the Endangered Species Act in the Western Great Lakes and Wyoming, will make it an even bigger disaster for wildlife. We send a big thank you to all of our supporters who called their Representatives, demanding they oppose this lethal legislation and all anti-wildlife amendments to the bill. There are significant legislative steps that must be taken before this bill succeeds, and we will be working with the Senate and the President to block this type of extreme legislation from becoming law.
Gray wolf, © USFWS
Film: Red Wolf Revival. On Monday, Defenders of Wildlife Southeast Program Director Ben Prater made the trek from Asheville, North Carolina to Washington to visit our DC office and sit on a panel following the incredible new short film, “Red Wolf Revival.” It’s a must see for anyone interested in learning more about the plight these imperiled wolves face! The film explores the history of the Red Wolf Recovery Program in North Carolina and the uncertain future of the red wolf, of which only 45 individuals remain in the wild. Ben answered questions from audience members and discussed the challenges these wolves face – namely, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reduced many program activities that were crucial to this species’ survival, including coyote sterilization and release of captive-bred wolves to increase the wild population.
Red Wolf, ©B. Bartel/USFWS

Diverse voices come together to discuss living with California wolves in recent nonlethal workshop. I remember when California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife reported OR-7’s appearance in California in late December 2011. OR-7 was the first wild wolf in the Golden State in nearly a century. What an historic event! I never thought that would occur in my lifetime.

It wasn’t until we learned about the presence of our resident Shasta Pack just this past August that it hit me: California wolf country is a reality, and we have a golden opportunity to make a tremendous difference for this iconic species.
Nonlethal workshop, © Pamela Flick/Defenders of Wildlife
But with great opportunity comes great responsibility. It’s imperative that we make sure that all parties involved in wolf recovery – private landowners, ranchers, hunters, wildlife officials and local wolf advocates – work together to help Californians share the landscape with our newly resident wolves.
Fladry and other nonlethal materials, © Pamela Flick/Defenders of Wildlife
Wolf management is a sensitive topic for many, but the more productive, respectful dialogue we can have on the issue, the better. The recent nonlethal workshop in the small northern California town of McArthur is a great example. This was the first nonlethal workshop held in the northern part of the state, where wolves are now established. Since wolves are protected under both federal and state law in California, it is critically important for ranchers to know how to protect their livestock from conflicts with wolves by using proactive strategies. By making sure that sheep and cattle are safeguarded from predation by wolves through the use of these nonlethal tools, ranchers can protect their bottom line, plus there is less pressure to lethally remove wolves for killing livestock, as has happened elsewhere in the West.

Defenders has extensive experience in developing and implementing tools to reduce conflict between wildlife and livestock in different regions of wolf country. We help ranchers use proven, nonlethal solutions to prevent attacks on livestock. It can be anything from using range riders to patrol for wolves, to electric fencing to keep grizzlies out of small pastures, chicken coops and bee yards. We also provide communities with resources to help minimize conflicts (like bear-resistant trash cans), and educate people on how to deal with wildlife encounters.

Across the country, our coexistence efforts have resulted in great outcomes for ranchers. At the workshop, I shared examples of these positive outcomes with more than 150 participants, who were actively engaged throughout the very long day. Many were interested to learn about the Wood River Wolf Project in central Idaho, where wolves have successfully shared habitat with the state’s highest concentration of sheep grazing on public lands – all with minimal livestock losses and no need to lethally remove wolves in the area.

I am pleased to report that Defenders and several of our conservation partners worked closely with Wildlife Services to organize and host this workshop. It’s no secret that Defenders has serious concerns about Wildlife Services’ lethal wildlife management strategies for wolves, particularly when it comes to lethal control to boost game populations. However, it is worth noting that the agency has recently ramped up its work to share information with ranchers about nonlethal prevention strategies to protect their livestock, not just here in California but in states throughout the west, including where we have the highest number of wolves and other large predators. This has been a welcome shift in Wildlife Services and one that we’d like to see more of well into the future.

While the workshop in McArthur was an incredibly important first step in California wolf recovery efforts, it is just the beginning. This year will bring even more opportunities to work with our ranching, conservation and government partners on this important and historical conservation opportunity in California. Through open communication and collaboration, it is my hope that we will all be able to find ways to live in harmony with wolves as they continue to make their return home to the Golden State. The post Learning to Live with California Wolves appeared first on Defenders of Wildlife Blog.

Mexican Wolf Numbers Decline in Southwest. Illegal Killings Likely a Cause of Alarming Drop. The number of endangered Mexican gray wolves in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico dropped to 97 last year from 110 in 2014, according to a just-released census by federal and state biologists. The troubling decline, which follows five years of annual population increases, was likely driven by the illegal killings of many of the 13 wolves found dead and the 11 wolves missing, as well as a low survival rate among the dozens of pups born last spring.

Further harming the population, two female wolves died during the census count after being captured in order to replace their radio collars.

“Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest remain in serious trouble, and it’s clear they won’t be on a real road to recovery until state and federal agencies step up and do what’s needed to help them survive,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The government should start by retrieving the telemetry receivers that allow livestock owners to track radio-collared wolves. It’s unconscionable to give high-tech tools that strip the wolves of their ability to stay hidden to the very people who have expressed their hatred for wolves and oppose these animals’ recovery.”

The receivers have been loaned out for years, despite high rates of unsolved illegal shootings as well as the disappearances of many radio-collared wolves under suspicious circumstances.

The other likely cause of the decline, inbreeding, stems from the small population being made up of closely related individuals lacking in genetic diversity, and is correlated with pups dying before they mature. As many as 40 pups are thought to have been born last spring, but just over half of them could be found last month.

Scientists have repeatedly urged the releases of more genetically robust wolves from captive-breeding facilities into the wild. The Fish and Wildlife Service periodically announces that it will release wolves, but seldom follows through. During the entirety of the Obama administration, just four captive-bred wolves have been released. Three of them died, and one was trapped and returned to captivity. Last fall conservationists and wildlife biologists requested the release of at least five family packs of Mexican wolves into the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.

“Endless delay in releasing wolves into the wild to address the genetic crisis results in inbred wolf pups that cannot survive,” said Robinson. “Our government must stop placating livestock interests and start prioritizing saving the Mexican wolf, before it’s too late.”

Background
A U.S. government program on behalf of the livestock industry exterminated Mexican gray wolves from the wild in the United States and Mexico by the early 1970s. Passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 led to the live capture of the last few wolves and successful breeding of seven of them.

A lawsuit by conservationists led to reintroduction in 1998. The population was projected to reach 102 animals, including 18 breeding pairs, by 2006, but only in 2014 topped 100 animals — and has never supported more than eight breeding pairs. A reintroduction program in Mexico began in 2011, leading to approximately 20 wolves in the wild in Mexico today.

The Center for Biological Diversity has two active lawsuits against the Fish and Wildlife Service over Mexican wolves. One suit seeks to compel development of a Mexican wolf recovery plan, which the Service has been promising to develop for more than 33 years. The other suit seeks to overturn regulations promulgated last year that permit increased killing of wolves and also block wolves from being allowed to disperse to the southern Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon region, areas that are necessary for their recovery.


The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 990,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.