By FRANK LINGO
A federal judge has reversed a Trump administration de-listing of gray wolves and restored endangered species protections.
The New York Times reported Feb. 11 that Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California found that the US Fish and Wildlife Service did not adequately consider threats to wolves outside the Great lakes region and Northern Rocky Mountains. Judge White ruled that the wolves should be protected in 44 of the lower 48 states.
Appallingly, the Biden Administration defended the Trump de-listing in court. The Washington Post also covered the ruling but omitted the pertinent point of Biden’s people supporting Trump’s policy.
Good rule of thumb: Individuals or agencies considering if their policy is decent and proper would do well to oppose any Trump rule.
Here’s how extreme the hunters and ranchers can be. In Wisconsin, after a court order had allowed hunting, 218 wolves were killed in four days last year.
Wolf advocacy groups have tried in the past to mollify the ranchers by offering compensation for livestock killed by the canines. But hatred of wolves runs deep in these people and they’re determined to wipe wolves out.
Wolves were once plentiful across the continent, but relentless hunting nearly made them extinct. They are an essential element of the ecosystem, keeping populations of deer, elk and rabbits in check. When wolves are present, deer and elk don’t chew up too much of the vegetation that holds the soil in place and allows many other flora and fauna to flourish. The red wolf is also an endangered species and needs continued protection to restore its role in nature.
“Today’s ruling is a significant victory for gray wolves and for all those who value nature and the public’s role in protecting these amazing creatures,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the Defenders of Wildlife non-profit conservation group, in a Yahoo article. Clark also called for emergency listing of wolves as endangered in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho where state laws allow hunters to kill wolves.
Judge White, appointed by President George W. Bush, bucks the trend of appointees by conservatives who usually side with business and hunting groups, rather than nature groups. Let’s remember that conservation logically means preserving nature, while conservative ironically means preserving power of the status quo.
Thank goodness, there are advocacy groups to bring these lawsuits. A leader of the action was Earthjustice, whose attorney Kristen Boyles said, “The Fish and Wildlife Service should be ashamed of defending the gray wolf de-listing.”
An NPR piece from last April noted that hundreds of wolves are killed annually by hunters and trappers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Those states are not affected by Judge White’s ruling. The Northern Rockies’ wolf population has remained strong — more than 3,000 animals, according to wildlife officials — because wolves breed so successfully and can roam huge areas of wild land in the sparsely populated region.
Some state officials are intent on reducing wolves’ numbers to curb livestock attacks and protect the big game herds that wolves prey upon. Supporters of restoring protections warn that will tip the scales and reduce wolf numbers to unsustainable levels, while also threatening packs in nearby states that have interconnected populations.
It’s worth noting here that many of the ranchers in those states enjoy cheap grazing for their livestock on federal lands, which belong to the American people. So the ranchers favor government protections for themselves and their livelihoods but oppose government protections for the wolves’ livelihoods.
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) states that ranchers use 270 million acres of Western federal land for grazing at a cost of about $1.69 per animal per month, adding that you can’t feed a house cat for that much. The CBD also says this massive grazing is harmful to the ecosystem, reducing once-rich topsoil to dust while depleting and despoiling ponds and streams in the drought-stricken West. This is all to satisfy America’s insatiable craving for meat.
When do humans as a species finally see that our way of dominating the land serves only ourselves and deprives many other species of their habitat and even their very lives? Let’s repair the web of life, not tear it any more.
Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. See his website: greenbeat.world.
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