Demanding that the Biden administration “trust the science,” U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-WI-07) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO-03) are reintroducing a bill calling on the re-populated gray wolf to be removed from the Endangered Species List.>
The Trust the Science Act also would require wolf populations to be managed by states, not by “one-size-fits-all” federal government regulations.
While federal wildlife experts in the Trump administration moved to delist the gray wolf in the lower 48 states through scientific review, a California federal judge a year ago vacated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife rule and unilaterally re-listed the wolf.
At over 6,000 wolves at the time of the 2020 delisting, the gray wolf has been the latest Endangered Species Act success story recoveries, with significant populations in the Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions, the lawmakers said.
But Senior District Judge Jeffrey S. White, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, found the Trump administration’s decision to remove the wolf from the Endangered list was based only on recovered gray wolf populations in the Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains, and did not take into consideration threats to the species in other portions of the U.S.
Deb Haaland, President Joe Biden’s secretary of the Interior, had just days before the judge’s ruling lamented in a USA Today op-ed what she insisted was the damage done to the gray wolf population.
Tiffany said an administration that has demanded Americans “follow the science” during the pandemic has been in conflict with the science on the gray wolf.
“It’s a scientific fact that the gray wolf has recovered well past its recovery goal. Saying otherwise undermines the purpose of the Endangered Species Act,” the Wisconsin congressman said. “This is a true recovery success story, and it’s past time to give states the reins to control their wolf populations.”
Farmers and ranchers have supported removing the wolf from the federal protection list as its populations have grown. Some have seen portions of their cattle herds destroyed.
As Wisconsin Farmer notes, “The state’s largest carnivores can, and will, kill a sheep, calf, cow, hunting dog or pet, just as quickly and effectively as a deer or elk.
“In July 2019, after a long day of hay-making, everyone slept like a rock,” Ashleigh Calaway, who raises beef cattle with her husband on their Wood County farm, told the publication. “But when my father-in-law walked out the next morning to check the flock of sheep, he found them massacred by wolves. Some of them were killed in one strike, while others were strung from one end of the pasture to the other. Most of the sheep were unrecognizable, with just their head or rib cage all that was left. Thirty years of our family’s blood, sweat and tears were gone along with 30 years of genetics.”
Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Kevin Krentz said Wisconsin farmers should not be subject to the whims of a judge hundreds of miles away.
“It’s time Wisconsin is allowed to take full control of the management of the state’s top predator,” he said.
As Wisconsin Public Radio reported, the number of wolves in Wisconsin grew from just 25 animals in 1980 to 1,195 wolves prior to the February wolf hunt, according to the DNR.
Delisting opened up a wolf hunt in February 2021, despite opposition and litigation from native tribes, as well as wildlife and liberal activists. Hunters killed 281 wolves in in the three-day hunting season, bringing the population down to a likely estimate of 972 animals, according to the DNR.
Following the California federal court ruling, harvest and lethal depredation control are prohibited, the DNR notes on its website. The agency has scheduled a virtual public hearing for this afternoon on its controversial, updated wolf management plan. Critics have voiced opposition to the hearing locking out testimony from those who can’t participate virtually.
“For too long, farmers and ranchers have been powerless to defend their livestock from gray wolf attacks, Boebert “The Trust the Science Act empowers states and puts people ahead of violent predators. We need to actually analyze the data objectively instead of letting Endangered Species Act listing decisions be made by leftist activists.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Tom Tiffany” by Representative Tom Tiffany. Photo “Lauren Boebert” by Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. Background Photo “Gray Wolf” by patrice schoefolt.
