WOLF EMERGENCY: Tell the Biden Administration to relist gray wolves
President Joe Biden, The Honorable Deb Haaland
Hunting, trapping, and habitat loss drove gray wolves to near extinction in the twentieth century. Conservation efforts made possible by the Endangered Species Act has allowed them to come back and begin to re-establish their former habitats. But, on its way out the door, the Trump Administration issued a rule that strips every gray wolf in the lower 48 states of crucial Endangered Species Act protections.
Wolves have only begun to recover in many parts of the country–and they are completely absent in others. The successful recovery of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies was only possible because of the strong protections of the Endangered Species Act. The Trump Administration's plan jeopardizes any future recovery by allowing states to manage gray wolves as game species.
This has already lead to violent death for many wolves. In a hastily-organized and unscientific wolf hunting and trapping season in Wisconsin, more than 200 gray wolves were slaughtered in less than one week. This is not in any way responsible management.
Wisconsin has demonstrated that state agencies are currently incapable of managing gray wolves. The Biden Administration must reverse the Trump Administration's misguided policy and again protect gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.
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To:
President Joe Biden, The Honorable Deb Haaland
From:
[Your Name]
Wolves in the United States were the subject of brutal and reckless attempts to drive them from the landscape in the last century. When they were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1974, they were gone in all but one state in the continental US. The protections of the Endangered Species Act have allowed gray wolves to recover in some parts of the country.
I was alarmed to learn that the Trump Administration issued a rule in its final days that removed these vital protections from still-recovering gray wolves in the lower 48 states.
Without these protections, states will have no limits on the management of this iconic and maligned species.
In Wyoming, where wolves once had Endangered Species Act protections, they are treated like nuisance animals and can be killed without limit any time of the year.
In Wisconsin, the state held a hastily-organized hunting and trapping season resulting in the slaughter of more than 200 wolves in just days.
These same stories of killing instead of conservation could play out across the United States where wolves are trying desperately to re-establish their rightful habitats.
I urge you to reverse the Trump wolf delisting and return gray wolves' protections under the Endangered Species Act.