Take Action to Protect Wyoming's Wolves from Extermination
- by: Lori Colt, WildEarth Guardians
- recipient: President Obama
The Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to approve Wyoming’s wolf management plan that would decimate wolves across more than 80 percent of the state, where anyone could shoot wolves on sight anytime.
Congress delisted wolves in Idaho and Montana from the Endangered Species Act last year and the results have been awful. Hundreds of wolves have been shot and trapped, traumatizing wolves and depriving ecosystems of their apex carnivore.
Wyoming’s plan would be worse. The state has shown no interest in recovering gray wolves. Their plan, which was previously rejected by the Service, would:
Designate a “predator” zone covering 83 percent of the state where wolves could be killed anytime of the year.
Permit wolf hunting in an important dispersal corridor, foreclosing wolf migration to Utah and Colorado.
Threaten wolf packs in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks that venture outside those protected areas.
Isolate Wyoming wolf packs from other wolves in Idaho and Montana.
Reduce the current population—estimated at approximately 350 wolves—by almost half.
Wyoming’s wolf plan, combined with hunting and mismanagement in neighboring states, could threaten the very survival of wolves in the Northern Rockies. The federal government has spent 16 years and millions of dollars to reintroduce wolves in the West, and the vast majority of the public supports wolf restoration.
The Obama Administration has recklessly rushed to withdraw federal protections from wolves in Wyoming and relinquish management to the state. Please help the President to recognize his mistake and save Wyoming’s wolves from a gruesome fate.
photo credit: Ray Rafiti
I am writing to urge you to reject Wyoming’s wolf management plan and retain federal protections for wolves in Wyoming. The state has not developed a viable conservation plan for the species. The wolf must remain listed under the Endangered Species Act in Wyoming until the state has produced a new plan to protect and recover wolves.
Wyoming’s wolf plan would allow wolves to be killed without a license for most of the year throughout most of the state, likely reducing the state’s population by almost half. It would permit wolf hunting in an important dispersal corridor, foreclosing wolf migration to Utah and Colorado. The plan could also threaten wolf packs in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks that venture outside those protected areas and could isolate Wyoming wolf packs from other wolves in Idaho and Montana.
Wyoming’s wolf plan, combined with hunting and mismanagement in neighboring states, could threaten the very survival of wolves in the Northern Rockies. The federal government has spent 16 years and millions of dollars to reintroduce wolves in the West, and the vast majority of the public supports wolf restoration. Please retain federal management of wolves in Wyoming until the state has demonstrated its commitment to recover wolves in the state.
Thank you for your consideration.
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