Hearing to Delist Wolves from Endangered Species Set
Adam Scepaniak 06.24.19
The delisting of wolves from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife has been tossed around for quite some time. This Tuesday, June 25th 2019, an open house and public hearing will be held in Brainerd, Minnesota by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to more seriously discuss that issue.
Blake Henning, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) chief conservation officer, wrote this in a public comment submitted to the USFWS:
Gray wolves have exceeded recovery goals in many states, including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the western Great Lakes region. RMEF maintains that where wolves exist, they should be managed by state wildlife agencies just as they manage elk, bears, deer, mountain lions and other wildlife.
It will be interesting to see how the hearings and ensuing legislation pan out in the coming months because both the Trump administration and the former Obama administration openly acknowledged that wolves have adequately recovered in numbers and should be removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.
The RMEF has significant interest in these hearings and any potential legislation surrounding it because wolves have a very direct impact on elk as well as other big game animals. In a recent article from Elk Network, the blog for the RMEF, they provided these statistics and comments:
Wolves are currently above objective in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and are spreading into California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and other states. The species is already under state management in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming where populations range anywhere from 150 to 400 percent above minimum recovery goals.
Personally, being a MN resident I have seen the negative effects of wolves on local whitetail deer populations and the detriment they can be to cattle farmers. What do you think we should decide to do? Remove wolves from the endangered species list or not? Let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.
