Congressman from Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon were among those signing a letter this week to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service calling for the full delisting of gray wolves in the Lower 48.
U.S. Reps Cathy McMorris-Rogers and Doc Hastings of the former state and Greg Walden of the latter were among 72 other members of the lower and upper chambers of Congress who say they are “strong” supporters of removing the species from ESA protections in the western two thirds of Washington and Oregon.
The Fish & Wildlife Service’s comment period for its proposed delisting runs through Dec. 17.
The legislators say they agree with the federal agency’s own contention that wolves in Canada and the US are part of the same population, that there are no behavioral differences because of the international border, nor are there barriers to the species moving internationally.
A map produced by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife earlier this fall actually shows Evergreen State wolves moving into Canada, though of those three that have dispersed to British Columbia, two have been shot and killed.
(WDFW)
The lawmakers also agree with USFWS that there are not discrete wolf populations in the Cascades, like advocates push through websites and books.
Saying that the states are ready to take over management, as they already do in the eastern thirds, the 75 contend that “unmanaged growth of wolf populations has resulted in devastating impacts on hunting,” a claim that will make big game tag sellers in Helena and Boise cringe and is difficult to swallow on the whole because of how high elk numbers are in the Northern Rockies, though wolves are linked to local impacts that have also been tied to predation by other species as well as large habitat and climate shifts that don’t favor elk.
No lawmakers from western portions of Washington or Oregon signed the letter, nor did any senators from either state.
It is the second that Hastings, who is the House Natural Resources Committee chairman, has put together on the issue. The other came in March and didn’t include McMorris-Rogers or Walden.
Comments
1. Biologists agree that the Olympic Peninsula contains excellent wolf habitat, but also agree that it must NOT be severed from connectivity from the larger population, should wolves manage to get across the Interstate 5 and urban barrier.
2. Most of Oregon’s Cascades and NONE of its heavily forested southwest wildlands have no wolf population. Again Interstate 5, and perhaps the degraded forests resulting from heavy forest industry herbicide use and a few other considerations.
3, Northern California WILL be cut off by any cessation of protections in Oregon. The tiny wolf population of CA, requires a number of new dispersals. Some of the best (and safest! The Klamath-Siskiyou forests are steeper and more heavily grown than the poachers and “sport” hunters can negotiate) unoccupied wolf habitat is, again, WEST of Interstate 5, a crazily-heavily traveled barrier.
The proposed removal of ES Listing would pretty much doom wolves in the Pacific West, until human populations are severely curtailed. Because of worldwide immigration, most “economies” seek to attract ever-MORE humans, cut and take ever more of the diminishing natural landscape, disrupt what remains by dewatering it for increased human growth.
THere are NO human governments – including local and tribal, that depart from this human-growth and increased-usage philosophy.
In other news, Germany seems to have some wolf increaase – Germany was once occupied by a people who did respect and revere the wolf, but with the invasion fo christianity, as well as the change previous to livestok-keeping that occurred acros Scandinavia and Northern Europe, this ancient relationship has been almost eradicaated.
Romania retains most of Europes wolves and bears, in the Carpathians. Slovakia and othher nations are becoming more anti wolf lately.
Farmers of France and Spain, and Germany and in other smaller natins are increasingly agitating against wolf.
However, Norway courts stopped the killing of Norway’s few wolves. Sweden and Finland are hard at it, though.
In te US, the anti Park and Preserve/ anti-federal government people who are the majority in congress, the executive dept. and all over, are bent on removing the wolf again. Even renowned wolf biologists of the past (I will not name names here, as I can hardly believe tey will reverse their positions) have been hired by Montana, New Mexico and elsewhere on their wildlife agencies. ALL the state agencies are involved in artificially limiting wolf population, even though those tiny populations (what is 600 in a state, after all? If you hav been to the wolf states, you will realize that 600 is not that far from none.
Even the wolf-hatin’ NW Wyoming as just OKed and will be adding new considerable “development” – adding houses and population, almost right up to Y’stone’s border, and cutting roadside forests up there in the Absaroka/Beartooths.
You cannot take alarm at this, as it has been a problem for a long time now.
Last, “Speak For Wolves” gathering has been announced It will take place in West Yellowstone on July 26 through July 28. Much information and connections can be found for anyone who attends.