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| Gray Wolf, Canis lupus (Photo credit: ArranET) |
Mexican wolves in Southwest would continue to be protected as endangered
subspecies
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to remove the gray wolf
(Canis lupus) from the list of threatened and endangered species. The
proposal comes after a comprehensive review confirmed its successful
recovery following management actions undertaken by federal, state and
local partners following the wolf’s listing under the Endangered Species
Act over three decades ago. The Service is also proposing to maintain
protection and expand recovery efforts for the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus
baileyi) in the Southwest, where it remains endangered.
Under the proposal, state wildlife management agency professionals would
resume responsibility for management and protection of gray wolves in
states where wolves occur. The proposed rule is based on the best science
available and incorporates new information about the gray wolf’s current
and historical distribution in the contiguous United States and Mexico. It
focuses the protection on the Mexican wolf, the only remaining entity that
warrants protection under the Act, by designating the Mexican wolf as an
endangered subspecies.
In the Western Great Lakes and Northern Rocky Mountains, the gray wolf has
rebounded from the brink of extinction to exceed population targets by as
much as 300 percent. Gray wolf populations in the Western Great Lakes and
Northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segments were removed from the
Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in 2011 and 2012.
“From the moment a species requires the protection of the Endangered
Species Act, our goal is to work with our partners to address the threats
it faces and ensure its recovery,” said Service Director Dan Ashe. “An
exhaustive review of the latest scientific and taxonomic information shows
that we have accomplished that goal with the gray wolf, allowing us to
focus our work under the ESA on recovery of the Mexican wolf subspecies in
the Southwest.”
The Service will open a 90-day comment period on both proposals seeking
additional scientific, commercial and technical information from the public
and other interested parties. The comment period will commence upon
publication of the proposed rules in the Federal Register. Relevant
information received during this comment period will be reviewed and
addressed in the Service’s final determination on these proposals, which
will be made in 2014. The Service must receive requests for public
hearings, in writing, within 45 days of the publication in the Federal
Register. Information on how to provide comments will be made available in
the Federal Register notices and on the Service’s wolf information page at
www.fws.gov/graywolfrecovery062013.html.
The Service’s proposal is supported by governors and state wildlife agency
leadership in each of the states with current wolf populations, as well as
those that will assume responsibility for managing wolves dispersing into
their states, such as Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota.
" With a solid state conservation and management plan in place for the
Northern gray wolf, an experienced wildlife management agency that is
committed to wolf recovery, and established populations recovering at an
increasing rate, Oregon is ready to take on further responsibility for wolf
management in this state,” said Roy Elicker, Director of the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We know that there are questions that
need to be resolved in moving toward a delisting of the Northern gray wolf
under the federal ESA, and we believe the rulemaking process is an
appropriate forum to address these issues. Oregon is supportive of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service publishing a proposed rule to begin this
dialogue, and we look forward to participating in the scientific review
process."
“The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is firmly committed to the
long-term persistence of wolves in Washington,” said Miranda Wecker, Chair
of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. “The Washington Fish and
Wildlife Commission believes the state should be responsible for the
management of wolves and supports the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s
consideration of delisting gray wolves under the federal Endangered Species
Act. By publishing the proposed rule, the Service ensures this important
consideration can take place in an open and public process.”
The Service’s comprehensive review determined that the current listing for
gray wolf, which was developed 35 years ago, erroneously included large
geographical areas outside the species’ historical range. In addition, the
review found that the current gray wolf listing did not reasonably
represent the range of the only remaining of the Mexican wolf population in
the Southwest.
Gray wolves were extirpated from most of the Lower 48 states by the middle
of the 20th century, with the exception of northern Minnesota and Isle
Royale in Michigan. Subsequently, wolves from Canada occasionally dispersed
south and successfully began recolonizing northwest Montana in 1986. In
1995 and 1996, 66 wolves from southwestern Canada were reintroduced into
Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho.
In 2002 the Northern Rocky Mountain population exceeded the minimum
recovery goals of 300 wolves for a third straight year, and they were
successfully delisted in the Northern Rocky Mountains in 2012 and Western
Great Lakes in 2011. Today, there are at least 6,100 gray wolves in the
contiguous United States, with a current estimate of 1,674 in the Northern
Rocky Mountains and 4,432 in the Western Great Lakes.
The number of Mexican wolves continues to increase within the Blue Range
Wolf Recovery Area. During the 2012 annual year-end survey, the Mexican
wolf Interagency Field Team counted a minimum of 75 Mexican wolves in the
wild in Arizona and New Mexico, an increase over the 2011 minimum
population count of 58 wolves known to exist in the wild.
In addition to listing the Mexican wolf as an endangered subspecies, the
Service proposes to modify existing regulations governing the nonessential
experimental population to allow captive raised wolves to be released
throughout the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in the Apache and Gila
National Forests east central Arizona and west central New Mexico, and to
disperse into the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area in the areas of
Arizona and New Mexico located between I 40 and I 10.
Read what supporters of the Service proposal are saying at
www.fws.gov/whatpeoplearesaying062013.htmlFor more information on gray and Mexican wolves, including the proposed
rules, visit
www.fws.gov/graywolfrecovery062013.html.
