By Amanda Tynan | Staff Editor

May 3, 2024

—

Without a listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the gray wolf (Canis lupus) may become something that the next generation can only know in the pages of a fairytale. The gray wolf is a distant relative of the near-extinct red wolf[1] and shares a distant evolutionary history with the eastern wolf that occupies the Great Lakes Region and much of Canada.[2] The stunning gray wolf has served many important roles for centuries. First, as an apex predator the wolf provides an essential ecological function by keeping prey species at healthy population sizes. This population control creates a cascading effect that improves ecosystem function across trophic levels and increases nutrient cycling.[3] Second, the gray wolf is considered the most sacred species to several Tribes, and broadly holds cultural and political importance across Indigenous communities.[4] Finally, this species is teeming with myth and intrigue: it has filled the pages of children’s books and public programming that has sparked curiosity about wildlife and cultivated an environmental ethic in children for generations. The gray wolf used to roam the contiguous United States until European settlers hunted them to near extinction, marking a harsh contrast to the centuries of coexistence wolves enjoyed with Native Americans.[5] Today, the delisting of the gray wolf could effectively exterminate Canis lupus in the contiguous United States.

The gray wolf has been fully extirpated from the East Coast;[6] however, gray wolf populations in the Northern Rockies and Western Great Lakes regions have since rebounded from near-total extinction.[7] Over last decade, gray wolves have naturally redispersed to California.[8] Moreover, Colorado passed Proposition 114 to reintroduce the species back into its native Southern Rockies range.[9] Importantly, much of the gray wolf’s recovery over the last fifty years is attributable to the ESA which conferred nationwide protections for decades.

The gray wolf was originally listed under the predecessor of the ESA and remained listed up until 2020.[10] Under the ESA, the population of Canis lupus found in Minnesota was listed as threatened, whereas the populations found across the rest of the contiguous United States were listed as endangered.[11] Specifically, the population of gray wolves found across the Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) region was designated as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS), a listable entity under the ESA.[12] It was this population of gray wolf that was delisted between 2009 and 2017 because the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) found that it had recovered. In 2020, the FWS delisted the gray wolf from the remaining contiguous United States.[13] In 2022, this delisting was vacated and remanded by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In fact, Courts have invalidated five out of six rulemakings by the FWS on gray wolf delisting for failing to consider how delisting a subpopulation affects gray wolf recovery nationwide.[14] As a result, the FWS published a final rule relisting the gray wolf across the contiguous United States; however, this relisting excluded the NRM DPS.[15]

Put plainly, the exclusion of the NRM DPS resulted in the wolf being listed as endangered where it does not live, and having its listing removed where it does live. This is an absurd outcome that does nothing to protect the wolf from extinction. While population numbers have increased dramatically across the western region, those numbers are artificially padded because of years of protection under the ESA, the use of junk science[16], and novel reintroduction programs, such as Colorado’s Proposition 114. Moreover, this year FWS published a finding that the NRM population no longer constitutes a DPS because of a high genetic exchange and connectivity with populations across the West. The FWS did find, however, that a new Western United States DPS exists. The FWS found that this DPS does not meet the criteria for listing as a threatened or endangered species because population numbers, genetic diversity, and habitat viability are all high—indicating that the species can persist without the help of the ESA.[17] However, this fails to account for the only significant threat to wolf populations in this region: man.

Without federal protections, wolf management plans are left to the state agencies. State management plans are highly controversial and paint a dire future for the gray wolf. Over the past few years, western states have adopted “laws and regulations designed to substantially reduce gray wolf populations in their states using means and measures that are at odds with modern professional wildlife management.”[18] These management strategies include permitting the use of chokehold snares on pregnant females in Montana, allowing the hunting of 90% of the population in Idaho, and the establishment of Predatory Animal Areas in Wyoming that allow the taking of a gray wolf year-round, without a license, using any means possible.[19] These practices far exceed hunting and trapping norms and permit unnecessary violence against our nation’s most intriguing carnivore. Since the delisting of the species, conservationists have reported that the rate of takings and the methods used have returned to that of colonial times, when wolves were nearly wiped off the continent.[20]

FWS is developing a new plan to “foster a national dialogue” to support conflict prevention between wolves and humans.[21] This is too little, too late. Without federal protections, the gray wolf will face deleterious rates of human-caused mortality. Just as the Judiciary has found time and time again, FWS has failed to consider how state management plans in the American West will affect the persistence of the species at large. As a result, the gray wolf continues to be forced in and out of federal protection. However, conservation advocacy groups have banded together and given notice of their intention to bring suit.[22] We can only hope this litigation will force FWS’s hand in promulgating a common-sense, federal management plan before wolves become something that the next generation can only know on the pages of a book.

—

[1] Red Wolf, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., https://www.fws.gov/species/red-wolf-canis-rufus (accessed Apr. 22, 2024) (noting only 15 to 17 individuals remain in the wild, all of which are part of a reintroduction plan in California).

[2] Eric Ralls, Eastern Wolves and Grey Wolves Evolved Separately, https://www.earth.com/news/eastern-wolves-and-grey-wolves-evolved-separately/ (Apr. 13, 2023) (noting the gray wolf and eastern wolf evolved from different natural histories and, thus, require different management plans).

[3] Gray Wolf, Defenders of Wildlife, https://defenders.org/wildlife/gray-wolf (accessed Apr. 22, 2024).

[4] https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/biden-administration-urged-to-consult-tribal-nations-on-gray-wolf-management-protection-2021-11-23/

[5] Wolf Conservation Planning: A Guide for Working Together Using Science, Inclusivity, and Ethical Practices, Endangered Species Coalition, www.wolfplanning.org (accessed Apr. 21, 2024).

[6] Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) Biologue, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv., http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/biology/biologue.htm (last updated May 2004).

[7] Protect America’s Wolves, Endangered Species Coalition, https://www.endangered.org/wolves/ (accessed Apr. 21, 2024).

[8] See Gray Wolf, Ca. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf (accessed Apr. 22, 2024) (discussing gray wolf naturally relocating to California from Northern Oregon).

[9] See H.R. 21-105, 1st Gen. Assemb., 1st Reg. Sess. (Co. 2020) (outlining the passing of Proposition 114 to reintroduce the gray wolf into Colorado).

[10] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Removing the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) From the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, 85 FR 69778 (2020).

[11] Id.

[12] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Finding for the Gray Wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains and the Western United States, 89 FR 8391 (2024).

[13] Id.

[14] U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Completes Status Review and Finding for Gray Wolves in the Western United States; Launches National Recovery Plan, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2024-02/service-announces-gray-wolf-finding-and-national-recovery-plan (Feb. 2, 2024).

[15] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Finding for the Gray Wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains and the Western United States, 89 FR 8391 (2024).

[16] Lindsay Botts, Conservation Groups Sue to Stop Wolf Hunting in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, Sierra, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/conservation-groups-sue-stop-wolf-hunting-idaho-montana-and-wyoming (Apr. 11,2024) (discussing how state agencies place cameras near wolf dens in order to pad the population numbers that are reported to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for consideration of delisting).

[17] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Finding for the Gray Wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains and the Western United States, 89 FR 8391 (2024).

[18] U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Completes Status Review and Finding for Gray Wolves in the Western United States; Launches National Recovery Plan, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2024-02/service-announces-gray-wolf-finding-and-national-recovery-plan (Feb. 2, 2024) (emphasis added). See Lindsay Botts, Montana Launches War on Wolves, Sierra, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/montana-launches-war-wolves (Apr. 14, 2021) (discussing the use of chokehold snares on pregnant females in Montana); and see Lindsay Botts, Idaho Legislature Sets Sights on Wolf Extermination, Sierra, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/idaho-legislature-sets-sights-wolf-extermination (May 3, 2020) (allowing the illegal taking of 90% of the gray wolf population in Idaho).

[19] Ramon Antonio Vargas, Outrage After US Hunter Who Reportedly Took Wolf to Bar and Killed It Only Fined, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/10/wyoming-wolf-bar-animal-abuse (Apr. 10, 2024) (discussing the recent incident where a hunter ran over a gray wolf pup with his snowmobile which maimed the pup, then taped its mouth shut, and brought it to a bar where it tortured and eventually killed it before an audience of onlookers—the man was only charged a $250 fine).

[20] Wolf Wars: America’s Campaign to Eradicate Wolves, PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/the-wolf-that-changed-america-wolf-wars-americas-campaign-to-eradicate-the-wolf/4312/ (Sept. 14, 2008).

[21] U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Completes Status Review and Finding for Gray Wolves in the Western United States; Launches National Recovery Plan, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2024-02/service-announces-gray-wolf-finding-and-national-recovery-plan (Feb. 2, 2024).

[22] Northern Rockies Gray Wolves Denied Endangered Species Protection: New Lawsuit to Protect Persecuted Wolves Is Likely, CBD, https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/northern-rockies-gray-wolves-denied-endangered-species-act-protection-2024-02-02/ (Feb. 2, 2024).