News Page Eighty One
Official says wolves don't need federal help in most of U.S.
 |
Wildlife advocates howl over possible impact of proposal. Forest lake, Minn., Declaring that it's time to celebrate the dramatic comeback of the gray wolf, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Friday that the predator should be removed from federal protection from Maine to the Dakotas. "The recovery of wolf populations in the ROckies and the Great Lakes area has been one of the most notable success stories of the Endangered Species Act," Norton said, speaking at the Wildlife Science Center, a nonprofit research and educational center that is home to 41 wolves.
The gray wolf, also known as the timber wolf, has bounced back from the brink of extinction in the contiguous 48 states over the past 30 years under federal protection. Their numbers have grown from as few as 30, all in northeastern Minnesota, to almost 4,000 spread across several states. The National wildlife Federation criticized the plan to remove the wolf from protection as shortsighted because it means the federal government won't be involved in any efforts to reintroduce the wolf in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York, which the group says have suitable habitats. Norton said any reintroduction there would be up to the states.
At the ceremony grew to a close, one wolf started to howl, joined soon by others across the center and drowning out Walter Medwid, executive director of the International Wolf Center. "wolves have survived in spite of centuries of relentless persecution by humans," Medwid said." But unlike the bald eagle or the perefrine falcon, the wolf, being the wolf, will continue to challenge our commitment in keeping it a part of American's landscape."
The states most effected by Friday's announcement are Minnesota, which has the largest wolf population in the contiguous states, around 2,400: wisconsin, with upwards of 370: and Michigan, with an estimated 360. Those states will take over management of their own wolf populations, with federal oversight for five years.
The Interior Department upgraded the gray wolves status from endangered to threatened last year except for the Southwest, where a subspecies, the Mexican gray wolf, it still struggling. While gray wolves have been making a comeback in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho since they were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in the mid 1990's, the federal agency has not been able to agree with those states on management plans. The wolf will remain classified as threatened in the West and endangered in the Southwest.
Norton's announcement started a 20 day public comment period. She told reporters that her department plans to issue its final rule late this year or early next year, and that she expects it will challenged tin court. ALthough the gray wolf is still limited to less than 5 percent of its original range, the recovery program has been compared to the successful revival of the bald eagle, the American alligator and peregrine falcon.
By Steve Karanowski/Associated Press
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Associated Press Picture
LE FastCounter
Under Paid Copyright ©1996 - 2018 by Ladywildlife©. All Rights Reserved