Looking Ahead: Wolves and the Endangered Species Act Under Attack

During the final weeks of 2010, Congress considered proposals to strip protections from wolves—a move that would also have put all imperiled American wildlife in jeopardy. While those bills did not pass, similar threats are destined to surface in the new Congress. Here’s an assessment of what happened and what lies ahead.

What happened?

Gray wolf in Denali National Park.

On August 5, 2010, a U.S. district court in Montana restored federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While this was an important victory for wolves, the court’s decision resulted in backlash from anti-wolf extremists that could undo decades of successful wolf recovery efforts and take countless other imperiled species down with it.

In the months immediately following the ruling, at least five separate bills were introduced in Congress to take wolves off the endangered species list. Some proposals, such as the one put forth by Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana, would have removed protections only for wolves in Montana and Idaho under specific conditions. Other proposals, such as the one from Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, would have permanently removed protections for all wolves in the United States. This includes gray wolves in the Great Lakes states and Northern Rockies, Red Wolves in North Carolina, and the tiny population of 42 Mexican wolves in the Southwest.

What’s at stake?

Wolf tracks.

The Endangered Species Act was signed into law in 1973 to prevent wildlife and plants from going extinct.  Congress wisely left the determinations of which species require protection and how to accomplish that to wildlife professionals making decisions based on the best available science. If Congress were to enact one of these bills legislatively removing federal protection from wolves, it would be undermining the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, one of the world’s most far-sighted and effective conservation laws.

Though the wolf is taking all the heat right now, it is certainly not the only divisive critter protected under the ESA. A legislative delisting would set a terrible precedent that would open the floodgates to efforts to delist countless other species wherever there is a conflict with human activities.  Thus, grizzly bears, salmon, beluga whales, polar bears, Florida panthers, sage grouse, sea otters, manatees and Delta smelt (to name just a few!) could all be at risk.

The good news is that with the support of Defenders’ members and many others in the environmental community, we were able to stave off these attacks on wolves and the ESA during the final hours of the last Congress. But with a new slate of wildlife-unfriendly senators  and representatives now installed in Congress, the threats loom larger than ever before.

Turning the Tide

We’ll need all the help we can get to change the anti-wildlife sentiment in Washington. It’s not just about saving wolves. It’s about preserving the last remaining vestiges of wildness and restoring healthy ecosystems across the country. It’s time to remind our elected representatives that the Endangered Species Act is America’s most effective tool for protecting native wildlife.

Help Save America’s Wolves!

The coming months will be critical for keeping wolf recovery on track, and we’ll continue to alert you when we need you to send messages to your representatives in Washington. We must prevent legislation that would allow hundreds of wolves to be killed, but even more important, we must prevent legislation that will unravel the very fabric of our landmark environmental laws.

America’s wildlife heritage and the future of conservation hang in the balance.