Obama Administration Strips Wolf Protections Across Most of Lower 48 States

[Loup Garou]

Plan Ends Prospects of Wolf Recovery in Southern Rockies, California, Northeast, Pacific Northwest

WASHINGTON— In a move questioned by some of the world’s leading wolf researchers, the Obama administration announced plans today to prematurely strip Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves across most of the lower 48 states, abruptly ending one of America’s most important species recovery programs. The proposal concludes that wolf protection in the continental United States, in place since 1978, is no longer needed, even though there are fledgling populations in places like the Pacific Northwest whose survival hinges on continued federal protection.
“This is like kicking a patient out of the hospital when they’re still attached to life support,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wolves cling to a sliver of their historic habitat in the lower 48, and now the Obama administration wants to arbitrarily declare victory and move on. They need to finish the job that Americans expect, not walk away the first chance they get. This proposal is a national disgrace. Our wildlife deserve better.”
Wolves today occupy just 5 percent of their historic habitat in the continental United States. Today’s proposal means that wolves will never fully reoccupy prime wolf habitat in the southern Rocky Mountains, California and Northeast, and will hinder ongoing recovery in the Pacific Northwest.

The proposal will hand wolf management over to state wildlife agencies across most of the country – a step that has meant widespread killing in recent years. Following removal of protections for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes in 2011, states in those regions quickly enacted aggressive hunting and trapping seasons designed to drastically reduce wolf populations. In the northern Rocky Mountains more than 1,100 wolves have been killed since protections were removed; this year populations declined by 7 percent.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/wolf-06-07-2013.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Goddamn it, that makes me really angry.

Some ranchers are so anti-wolf that they will lure them out of their protected areas to eat dead sheep, and then shoot them.

[Life Long Dem]

2. No longer an endangered species

Cool!

[Loup Garou]

3. Trapping should be outlawed.

[stuntcat]

5. trapping's nothing but a SHAME

"utter bloodlust" is right. or uncaring utter cruelty.

Even gunning them down is better than torturing them for hours or days, and then killing them.

Humans are so embarrassing this way. If they're pets we breed them out of control, then kill millions in shelters. If they're farm animals we waste idiotic amounts of energy and water and land to feed them, then torture them to death by the millions. If they're wild we drive them to extinction. This century will be such a shame with our species choking the hell out of the rest of the lifes.

[CrispyQ]

7. "This century will be such a shame with our species choking the hell out of the rest of the lifes."

Our arrogance & lack of empathy is stunning. We have no right to call ourselves human.

In David Brin's Uplift series, the human race, the 'wolfling race,' fears that the galactic order will find out how many species we callously wiped out in our earlier history. It's not a main theme of the story, but it is mentioned a few times. "Startide Rising" is on my top 10 sci-fi stories. I don't have much hope that we'll evolve to a point similar to the book, however.

from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Uplift-War-Saga-Book/dp/0553279718/ref=wp_bs_3_B00CKDIM6O_mass_market


Sundiver, Startide Rising and The Uplift War, a New York Times bestseller --together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind?

[life long demo]

4. I am so upset by this.

When I got several e-mails on this today I sent an e-mail to Pres. Obama protesting the action. I know nothing will come of that, but I don't know what else to do. I just can't believe this whole scene. I fought to get wolves ON the endanger species list. We are almost to the point where because of the absolute horrible methods of killing the wolf and the numbers killed got them on the ESA. It's not just the killing of them it's the utter bloodlust. I just don't understand.

[RiverLover]

6. Petition--Don't Let Obama allow wolves to be slaughtered after all the work to save them!

Thanks LG, for posting about this. I hope people see it!

Here's the email I got from the Center for Biological Diversity~

"Last week the Obama administration issued a sweeping delisting plan to remove protections for wolves across the lower 48 states. The plan only maintains protections for the small population of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.

If finalized this proposal will mean the premature end of decades of work to restore wolves to the American landscape -- even though wolves currently occupy a mere 5 percent of their historic range.

The proposal also means that states will hold the reins of wolf management across most of the country. We've already seen what state management entails for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes, where protections were removed in the past two years -- in short, aggressive trapping and hunting seasons designed to drastically reduce populations, resulting in at least 1,600 wolves killed.

Please take action now to halt this delisting plan before it's too late: Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not to turn its back on America's wolves."

http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/salsa/web/tellafriend/public/?tell_a_friend_KEY=11963

Please sign & pass along!!