Northern Rocky Mountain wolves need Endangered Species Act protections

WildEarth Guardians and our allies scored a major legal victory for gray wolves on February 10, 2022 when a federal court restored Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for the gray wolf across the lower 48 states after they were eliminated by Trump in 2020.

Unfortunately, the ruling does not apply to wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains because a 2011 Congressional rider stripped this wolf population of ESA protections and even stipulated the rider “shall not be subject to judicial review.”

Guardians and wolf advocates have filed an emergency petition to relist Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves under the ESA, but the Biden administration has refused to take action. Please write the Biden administration today, then share this action alert with your friends, family, and networks to have the biggest impact for wolves.

Photo Credit: Gray wolf photo by Jacob W. Frank/NPS; graphic element added by Gus O'Keefe

Recipients

The President Joseph 'Joe' R. Biden
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland
Martha Williams, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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A slaughter of gray wolves, the likes of which America hasn't witnessed in 100 years, is currently taking place in the Northern Rockies. And it's happening on your watch.

I call on you to immediately issue emergency relisting protections under the Endangered Species Act for the gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

State "management" of wolves in the Northern Rockies has been a bloody disaster. The state of Idaho lets trophy hunters and trappers kill an unlimited number of wolves. Wolves can be run down with hounds and chased with ATVs and snowmobiles. Idaho has a "bounty" on wolves and the state can even hire private contractors to kill up to 90% of the wolf population.

In Montana, 50% of the state's entire wolf population could be killed in just a few months by various brutal and unethical methods including baiting, snaring, and night hunting. The Montana legislature also authorized a wolf "bounty" program. The wolf hunting and trapping regulations in Wyoming are equally draconian. The federal government has sat back and done nothing as 24 Yellowstone wolves have been shot or trapped since September.

The goal of this type of state 'management' of wolves is clear: to eradicate gray wolves from their Northern Rocky Mountains stronghold. The wolf slaughter currently taking place harkens back to an era when people sought to exterminate wolves altogether and nearly succeeded.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can and must take quick action. In May 2021, and again in March 2022, a coalition of conservation groups filed emergency petitions to relist Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

I write to support the petition and urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to immediately issue emergency relisting protections for the gray wolf in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The United States simply cannot abandon fragile wolf-recovery efforts and allow anti-wolf states, hunters, and trappers to push a keystone species back to the brink of extinction.

Sincerely,
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[Your Email]