Great Lakes Timber Wolves
The Great Lakes timber wolves will be formally removed from the federal endangered species list. The decision will be posted soon in the federal register and will become official within 30 days.
Pending any lawsuits, wolves in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin could lose federal Endangered Species Act protection by March. That will put management of wolves back in the hands of state natural resource agencies and Ojibwe tribes, which already have prepared wolf management plans.
Some say the move signals a great success, showing the federal law works to bring back species from the brink of extinction. When wolves first gained protections in the 1970s, only about 300 wolves remained in the contiguous U.S., all of them in the Superior National Forest and on Isle Royale.
Now, there are more than 3,000 wolves across the northern half of Minnesota, with another 500 each in northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But others say the time isn’t yet ripe to drop wolf protections. Lawsuits challenging the decision are expected.
The government will announce plans to delist wolves around Yellowstone National Park. The northern Rocky Mountain distinct population area includes all of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and eastern Oregon and Washington. More than 1,000 wolves now live in that area after a reintroduction effort in Yellowstone in the 1990s.
Under the federal plan, wolves would still be protected in the Northeastern U.S. if they ever infiltrate the region, and in the far Northwest and Southwest U.S. The federal government monitors formerly listed species for five years.
State wolf management plans in the Great Lakes call for limited trapping of wolves by government experts, especially in areas where livestock and pets have been attacked. They also allow landowners more leeway in shooting threatening wolves. The states so far have not established sport hunting or trapping seasons, and there’s no call for the return to imposing a bounty, poisoning wolves or destroying wolf dens.
In Minnesota, government trappers already kill about 200 wolves a year where livestock and pets have been killed. That program is expected to continue in Minnesota and begin in Wisconsin and Michigan even as private citizens regain some rights to kill the animals.
January 30, 2007 6:50 AM | Category: Animals