February 7, 2024
Media Contacts: info@projectcoyote.org, 415.945.3232
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Deny Endangered Species Act Protections for Northern Rockies Wolves
On February 2, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that the wolves of the Northern Rockies are “not warranted” for federal protection pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. This announcement was in response to numerous petitions filed more than two years ago, calling for the reinstatement of federal protections.
Despite the killing of over 4,000 wolves in the U.S. since 2020, the wolves of the Northern Rockies will remain under state management in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. These states will continue allowing widespread, often incentivized, killing. Wolves outside of the Northern Rockies will remain under federal protection pursuant to a February 10, 2022 court order which restored protections for wolves outside of the Northern Rockies.
“With this decision, the USFWS failed not just the wolves of the Northern Rockies, but wildlife and wildlands at large that benefit and rely on healthy and abundant wolf populations to serve their keystone roles in our ecosystems,” said Renee Seacor, Carnivore Conservation Director with Project Coyote. “All wolves are deserving of full, enduring protections that will allow them to live self-determined lives free from persecution.”
In the midst of the twin crises of catastrophic biodiversity collapse and climate change, USFWS has chosen to allow the continued unsustainable killing of wolves, a species that increases biodiversity and the resilience of our shared ecosystems. Wildlife populations have plummeted by more than two-thirds in the last 50 years and one million of the estimated eight million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction. In the face of these crises, the USFWS, the federal agency entrusted with conserving our nation’s increasingly imperiled flora and fauna, is failing to protect a keystone species critical for ecological restoration.
The USFWS also announced its intention to develop a National Recovery Plan for gray wolves in the lower 48, which is set to be completed by December 12, 2025. Project Coyote will monitor the development of this process as it unfolds, and advocate for the full protection of wolves across the country.
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