The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will no longer release a national recovery plan for gray wolves.
That’s because the agency says it’s “no longer appropriate” for the species to be federally protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a Nov. 3 finding.
Currently, gray wolves are listed as threatened or endangered in most of the country, except Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, as well as parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah.
Last year, the Biden administration announced it would release a first-of-its-kind nationwide recovery plan by Dec. 12.
“Basically [the plan] analyzes all the threats to the species and then comes up with conservation actions that can ameliorate those threats,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Her group plans to sue over the Trump administration’s decision to not make a recovery plan, which she said signals future attempts to delist wolves. This could either be done by an act of Congress, or by FWS proposing a rule and allowing public comment.
For decades, gray wolves have been at the center of a legal battle characterized by this kind of whiplash. Adkins said the goal of the recovery plan was to put an end to that.
“The whole point was to try to come up with a new strategy that could withstand court scrutiny that really would reflect what wolves need to recover,” she said.
Yet the legal battle continues.
In one of the most recent cases, a Montana judge ruled FWS was wrong to not protect wolves in the West, including in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The service is currently appealing that decision.
Meanwhile, 25 conservative congresspeople sent a letter on Oct. 31 urging FWS to delist.
“We urge FWS to reissue the rule delisting the gray wolf under the ESA, and to stand firmly behind the authority of states and tribes to manage recovered species, including through regulated hunting and other proven tools that help reduce human-wildlife conflict while sustaining healthy populations,” the letter reads.
More than a third of signees are from the Mountain West. That includes Rep. Elijah Crane (R-AZ), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO), Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO), Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID), Rep. Troy Downing (R-MT) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY).
This comes as a Wyoming man faces a felony charge for running down a wolf with a snowmobile and bringing it into a bar.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
