The leadership of the House and Senate and the President brokered a budget deal that sold out wolves by including a provision that would eliminate protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, weakening the Endangered Species Act and leaving these magnificent animals with little safety net against the threat of widespread killing.
Besides the settlement agreement in the ongoing fight over wolf management was rejected by a federal court – blocking a collaborative path forward that could have helped ensure that science, not politics, dictated decisions on wolf management.
Meanwhile, state legislatures in the Northern Rockies continue to prove why state management of wolves is a cause for concern. For example, the Idaho legislature has passed a bill authorizing the governor to declare a state of emergency over the presence of wolves and extremists in that state are calling for law enforcement to find and kill these amazing animals.
The fate of wolves now rest in the hands of state officials. And while states like Oregon and Washington are adopting progressive plans to welcome wolves into their states, the legislatures and some governors and officials in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Utah are taking a more extreme approach to wolf management.
As bad as things are, the situation could get worse. Some extremists are pushing for the elimination of all wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.
So far, the shrill voices of anti-predator groups like the misleadingly named Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and their leader Don Peay – the same group that along with Cabelas sponsored wolf killing derbies in Idaho –have carried the debate. But we can’t let the extremists win.
