It is time for ALL large orgs to call for an end to grazing allotments not just a couple! Join Us today to get our research into courts to protect your children’s resources!
Call for cooperation didn’t work
The effort to have wolves and cattle co-exist on public lands might have worked if ranchers had tried harder.
But they didn’t.
So the cows have to go.
The public needs its land for wolves and other wild creatures.
Ranchers had their chance.
- Modern efforts to restore Mexican gray wolves to the wild were tailored to ranchers’ needs, including the classification of these wolves as a “nonessential experimental” population instead of giving them full protection as an endangered species.
- It was for ranchers’ convenience that public land managers killed and recaptured so many Mexican wolves that the wild population did not grow as anticipated.
- It was for ranchers’ convenience that a compensation program was established to pay ranchers for livestock killed by wolves.
What’s more, ranching groups are supporting an effort by Republican Sen. John Barrasso, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to “modernize” the Endangered Species Act, in part, by giving individual states a greater say in how species recovery is handled.
State wildlife agencies are seen by conservationists as easier for ranchers and other special interests to influence. So this could be bad news for wolves and other endangered species.
Dooming endangered species
At a hearing July 17, Democrats expressed concerns about the Barrasso’s proposal.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said the bill “is taking us in the wrong direction” at a time when the world is experiencing “a global extinction crisis.”
Meanwhile, livestock groups have launched a campaign in support of Barrasso’s Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2018.
With the pro-industry slant of the Trump administration, efforts to thwart this nation’s commitment to species diversity may gain strength.
It’s up to the public to push back. Wolves can’t make phone calls.
Source: Mexican gray wolf, cattle can’t coexist. Let wolves have public land