In some ways, it seems nothing short of a holiday miracle that gray wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes region have been spared from the annual year-end political games in Congress that routinely transform our federal budgeting process into a corporate wish-list where everything from endangered species to perks for the oil and gas industry are traded like so many plastic poker chips.
But the joy that comes from knowing that the ugly push to sidestep the Endangered Species Act and delist the wolves via a special rider attached to the appropriations bill is short-lived. Wolves continue to face the prospect of being stripped of their federal protections and in recent weeks the news out of Oregon and California makes clear that much work is left to be done before wolves will be allowed to recover to sustainable levels called for by leading scientists.
Just last month Oregon wildlife regulators removed state endangered species protections for wolves even though the state is home to only about 80 wolves that live in little over 10 percent of the suitable habitat that’s available.
And just last week, only a year after confirmation of California’s first wolf pack in nearly 100 years, wildlife regulators released a state management plan that called for the possibility of dropping state protections for wolves when the population reaches as few as 50 to 75 wolves.
Equally troubling is that increasingly, greatly imperiled species like wolves, sage grouse and prairie chickens are under constant threat from legislative attacks led by conservatives in Congress. And as demonstrated by Congress’ disturbing decision to use a budget rider to reopen U.S. export oil fueling climate change, it’s not just the Endangered Species Act and the species it protects that conservatives are taking aim at.
This year alone legislators proposed more than 80 anti-environmental – just to make sure they’ve created enough chaos to cash in a few of those chips at budget time. Since the Republicans took control of the House in 2011 there have been hundreds of legislative attacks on the environment including more than 170 on endangered species and the Endangered Species Act. In 2015 dozens of bills targeted endangered species including the gray wolf, the American burying beetle and sage grouse, as well as legislation designed to limit the ability of citizens to go to court in defense of wildlife.
As documented in a report released this year the Center, there has seen a 600-percent increase in Republican-led legislative attacks on endangered species since the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United ruling.
When wolves and climate health are reduced to Congressional poker chips | Noah Greenwald.