A bill introduced by Alaskan junior senator Dan Sullivan to end protection for Great Lakes gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) would also stop courts from interfering on behalf of groups seeking to protect wolves in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
On January 20, 2016 the Bipartisan Sportsman’s Act of 2016 passed the Senate Environment Committee with an amendment from Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso that would de-list the wolves in those four states.
A similar bill was introduced in the U.S. House on Feb. 11 by five Michigan Republicans and is co-sponsored by four Minnesota Democrats. To date it is stalled in the House’s natural resources committee.
If the gray wolves were dropped from federal protections, states would have the right to hold wolf-hunting seasons.
In November 2015, 26 wildlife management professionals and scientists sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Interior asking it to remove the Great Lakes wolves from the Endangered Species List.
In the letter the scientists said the wolves in the four states should no longer be considered “endangered” and did not need protection under the ESA.
The letter goes on to state, “The undersigned strongly believe that it is in the best interest of gray wolves conservation and for the integrity of the ESA for wolves to be delisted in the western Great Lakes States where biological recovery has occurred and where adequate regulatory mechanisms are in place to manage the species. We believe that failure to delist wolves in these states is counterproductive to wolf conservation there and elsewhere where suitable habitat may exist.”
Minnesota wolf researcher Dr. David Mech was one of the co-signers on the letter, which was sent to Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dana Ashe.
A rebuttal letter signed by 70 scientists and researchers was sent to the U.S. Department of Interior arguing that gray wolves deserved protections under the ESA. The main contention for the signators is that although the number of wolves is increasing, the gray wolf still hasn’t made a recovery in many of its original habitats despite increasing in numbers.
To date there have been no roll call votes related to this bill. A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the president to become law.
Estimates place 630 wolves in Michigan, 800 in Wisconsin and 2,200 in Minnesota.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has tried to delist gray wolves in the Great Lakes states several times in the last 15 years. The courts have reversed each try.
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