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Background
Wolf Recovery Under Attack in the Northern Rockies
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The Bush administration has just issued a rule permitting states to kill wolves affecting elk herds in any way in the northern Rockies. In the past, wolves could not be killed just for preying on elk and deer populations unless states could demonstrate that wolves were the primary cause of a population decline in the elk or deer herds. The new rule, however, allows states to establish management objectives that would exclude wolves from important areas, or kill wolves just for traveling through native elk populations on elk feeding grounds. This latest move is part of a coordinated plan to resume large-scale wolf slaughters. The federal government, for example, recently approved Wyoming's plan to kill most wolves in the state once the animals are delisted from the Endangered Species Act, which is expected to occur in February 2008. Federal wildlife officials have already approved wolf management plans from Montana and Idaho, the only other two northern Rockies states with wolf populations. The Wyoming plan allows anyone to kill any wolf that wanders outside a small area in the northwest corner of the state. The plan even targets wolves that live for most of the year in Yellowstone National Park and only leave the park in the winter in search of food. Federal approval means Wyoming will be allowed to shoot and trap 250 of the approximately 350 wolves currently living in Wyoming once they are removed from the Endangered Species List. Wolves in the lower-48 states were listed as a protected species under the Endangered Species Act in 1973 after many years of persecution nearly wiped them out. Without wolves, the Northern Rockies saw unnaturally large populations of elk proliferate and overgraze natural areas. Streams and creeks, once cold, clear, and full of fish, grew muddy from soil erosion. Without wolves, park rangers in Yellowstone were forced to shoot elk to control the population. Other wildlife species were also affected by the unnatural imbalance created by the absence of wolves. After years of planning and study, federal officials released sixty-six gray wolves from Canada into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in 1995 and 1996. They prospered and multiplied, and today their offspring are thought to number around 1500, spread across Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. A 2006 study by the University of Montana found that tourists visiting Yellowstone National Park to see wolves brought $35 million annually to the region's economy, which yields more than $70 million in added benefit to communities in the Northern Rockies. Elk populations are now healthier, streams run cold and clear again, and other wildlife populations are back in balance. In the face of this unparalleled recovery progress, the Bush administration is turning its back on gray wolves by approving seriously flawed state plans. These plans fail to guarantee that wolf populations are strong enough to perform their important ecological role and avoid genetic bottlenecks brought on by inbreeding. According to more than 200 scientists who commented on the delisting proposal, several thousand wolves are needed in the northern Rockies to ensure their long-term survival. Once on the verge of recovery, the future of America’s wolves is now hanging in the balance.Back from the Brink
Benefits of Wolves
