Victory for Northern Rockies wolves
Historic Victory for Northern Rockies Wolves at Defenders of Wildlife.
From the press release:
U.S. district court overturns Interior Secretary Salazar’s action that removed wolves in the Northern Rockies from the endangered species list
Ruling makes it clear that subdividing a wild population based on political boundaries rather than science violates the Endangered Species Act
Defenders calls for update of science and regional stakeholder collaboration to ensure continued wolf recovery and proper removal of federal protections
I am very pleased about this. The wolf management plan these states had come up with was irresponsible and based on prejudice and wishful thinking, not science. I am not opposed to legalizing the hunting of any animal, provided it is done humanely and provided the population can bear the burden. I want to see the gray wolf de-listed in the Northern Rockies, but it wasn't time, yet. It was too soon. The overturned ruling allowed and encouraged destructive wildlife management strategies which, if implemented, would have drastically reduced and then fragmented the wolf population, setting reintroduction efforts back twenty years.
Hopefully this decision will encourage the development of responsible, coordinated efforts across state lines to establish and manage a healthy gray wolf population.
States will still be allowed to kill or relocate problem animals, and Defenders also works with the local human population to reduce the wolf threat to livestock through effective nonlethal means (training guard dogs, establishing fladry fencing, surveying wolf populations on pastureland so that animals are not grazed near dens during puppy season), meaning that ranchers are not without protection from what is, after all, a predatory species right on their back step.
I am not without sympathy for both sides, here, wolf and rancher. The people I don't have sympathy for are the middlemen, the policy-setters, local wildlife management, which would rather throw wolf populations and decades of effort and research on the part of wildlife experts under the bus than work with ranchers and wolf experts to come up with ways to reduce negative human/predator interactions. These people are meant to act as advocates and protectors of wildlife, as well as management. They have been failing in this duty because the simplest answer to the wolf problem is no wolves at all. Hopefully this won't be allowed to continue. It's not an easy job. It's not meant to be. Trying to make it easy by eradicating not just problem animals but a problem species from a given area is a dreadful approach.
From the press release:
I am very pleased about this. The wolf management plan these states had come up with was irresponsible and based on prejudice and wishful thinking, not science. I am not opposed to legalizing the hunting of any animal, provided it is done humanely and provided the population can bear the burden. I want to see the gray wolf de-listed in the Northern Rockies, but it wasn't time, yet. It was too soon. The overturned ruling allowed and encouraged destructive wildlife management strategies which, if implemented, would have drastically reduced and then fragmented the wolf population, setting reintroduction efforts back twenty years.
Hopefully this decision will encourage the development of responsible, coordinated efforts across state lines to establish and manage a healthy gray wolf population.
States will still be allowed to kill or relocate problem animals, and Defenders also works with the local human population to reduce the wolf threat to livestock through effective nonlethal means (training guard dogs, establishing fladry fencing, surveying wolf populations on pastureland so that animals are not grazed near dens during puppy season), meaning that ranchers are not without protection from what is, after all, a predatory species right on their back step.
I am not without sympathy for both sides, here, wolf and rancher. The people I don't have sympathy for are the middlemen, the policy-setters, local wildlife management, which would rather throw wolf populations and decades of effort and research on the part of wildlife experts under the bus than work with ranchers and wolf experts to come up with ways to reduce negative human/predator interactions. These people are meant to act as advocates and protectors of wildlife, as well as management. They have been failing in this duty because the simplest answer to the wolf problem is no wolves at all. Hopefully this won't be allowed to continue. It's not an easy job. It's not meant to be. Trying to make it easy by eradicating not just problem animals but a problem species from a given area is a dreadful approach.