![]() Deb Haaland published an op-ed this week saying federal officials could give northern Rockies wolves emergency protection if the species is put at significant risk. That’s sparked public outrage due to the popularity of Yellowstone’s wolf packs among tourists who visit from around the world.įollowing the killings, Interior Sec. Under the loosened rules, hunters and trappers primarily in Montana have killed a record 23 wolves that wandered outside Yellowstone National Park this winter. Fish and Wildlife Service in September began a separate review of whether protections should be restored for the region’s wolves, after Republican state lawmakers in Montana and Idaho passed laws last year intended to drive down wolf numbers by making it easier to kill them. The status of northern Rockies wolves was not challenged in the lawsuit decided Thursday. In Michigan, where the wolf population numbers about 700, Republican legislators introduced pro-hunting resolutions but no formal proposal was before the wildlife commission that sets hunting seasons.īefore hunting is considered, Michigan officials want their legal status more permanently settled “given the long history of legal challenges to delisting decisions and the resulting shifting status of wolves,” said Ed Golder with the state Department of Natural Resources. All three were updating their wolf management programs and officials said that work would continue.Ī state judge in Wisconsin in October had blocked a hunt two weeks before it was to begin, responding to a lawsuit that claimed it was illegally scheduled. None of the Great Lakes states with established wolf populations - Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin - had scheduled additional wolf hunts prior to the judge’s ruling. ![]() “They’re simply forcing citizens to take matters into their own hands.” “It’s really frustrating and outrageous that some judge thousands of miles away is suddenly telling us that our own scientific management of the species can’t be trusted,” said Ed McBroom, a Republican state senator from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Zippy Duvall, president of the Farm Bureau, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling and that it ignored wolves’ recovery beyond government population goals. The American Farm Bureau Federation, National Rifle Association and other industry groups had urged the judge not to restore federal protection, keeping the wolves under the control of state officials who allow wolf hunting. That has stirred anger among hunters who target the big game animals. Wolf attacks on livestock are uncommon but can cause significant economic damage to farmers when their cows or sheep are killed.Īnd wolves in some places have reduced the size of elk and deer herds, their natural prey. “Wolves in the Great Lakes region have a stay of execution,” said John Horning with the environmental group WildEarth Guardians. ![]() ![]() Wildlife advocacy groups said the judge’s order would most immediately put a stop to hunting in the Great Lakes region, where Wisconsin officials had come under criticism after a wolf hunt last year blew past the state’s quotas, killing 218 wolves in four days. Interior Department spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said the agency was reviewing Thursday’s decision and offered no further comment. They contend protections are no longer warranted. That recovery has brought bitter blowback from hunters and farmers angered over wolf attacks on big game herds and livestock. Haruki Murakami pleads for keeping Tokyo park and baseball stadium that inspired his writingĪt stake is the future of a species whose recovery from near-extinction has been heralded as a historic conservation success. ![]()
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