Representative Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) led 30 members of Congress in reintroducing a bill that would delist gray wolves, returning the management of the species to state wildlife agencies. The Pet and Livestock Protection Act, as it’s called, would also not allow the action to be subject to judicial review.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted wolves in the Lower 48 states twice in the last decade and a half – during the Obama administration in 2011 and the Trump administration in 2020. Both times, judges intervened to invalidate the process despite agreement among scientists, biologists and professional wildlife managers that wolf populations are stable and growing and should return to state management. State wildlife agencies sustainably manage thousands of species without federal interference, and several states in the northern Rockies are successfully managing wolves because Congress took action to protect their delisting from activist judges. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation supports the Pet and Livestock Protection Act to return wolf management to all states. We thank Representatives Tiffany and Boebert for sponsoring this legislation,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer.
The six senators representing Wyoming, Montana and Idaho also introduced a bill to delist grizzly bears. According to the Washington Times, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population in 2023 more than doubled the original recovery goal of 500. There are also more than 1,000 grizzlies in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem in northwest Montana.
RMEF also agrees that state wildlife agencies can and should manage recovered grizzlies just as they manage elk, black bears, deer, mountain lions and other wildlife.
(Photo credit: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)