ContactsHugh Vickery
202-501-4633
Ron Refsnider
612-713-5346
Interior Secretary
Gale Norton today announced that gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and
Michigan have recovered from the threat of extinction, prompting the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service to propose removing the wolves in this region from
the federal list of threatened and endangered species.
In addition
to the delisting proposal, the Service also proposes to designate gray wolves
in the Western Great Lakes region as a distinct population segment (DPS)
under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
“We
commend our partners – states, tribes, conservation organizations,
and local residents – for their dedicated efforts to ensure the wolf
is an enduring part of the landscape in the Upper Midwest,” said Interior
Secretary Gale A. Norton. “Our proposal to delist the gray wolf indicates
our confidence that those who will assume management of the species will
safeguard its long-term survival.”
The Service’s
proposal to remove the gray wolf from the list of threatened and endangered
species applies to the Western Great Lakes DPS. This area includes the states
of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan as well as parts of North Dakota, South
Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Within this area, the Service is
proposing to remove federal ESA regulation regarding the gray wolf and entrust
wolf management responsibility with states and tribes.
The proposed
DPS includes all the areas currently occupied by wolf packs in Minnesota,
Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as nearby areas in these states in which
wolf packs may become established in the future. The DPS also includes surrounding
areas into which wolves may disperse but are not likely to establish packs.
The population
of wolves included in this DPS no longer meets the definition of threatened
or endangered under the ESA. The threats to the population in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan have been reduced or eliminated as evidenced by the
current status of the population, where wolf numbers have exceeded the numerical
recovery criteria established in its recovery plan.
The Recovery
Plan for the Eastern Timber Wolf established criteria to identify the point
at which wolves would no longer be threatened with extinction in the eastern
United States. To achieve this recovery, the plan called for maintaining
and expanding the Minnesota wolf population and establishing at least one
other gray wolf population in the eastern portion of the nation. The second
population could be totally isolated from the Minnesota wolf population,
or it could be adjacent to it, as is the case with the Wisconsin-Michigan
population that has developed over the last three decades.
The gray wolf
population in the western Great Lakes region now numbers close to 4,000 animals
over the three-state area. The Minnesota population has steadily expanded;
the latest estimate in 2003-2004 found about 3,020 animals. Wolves have become
well-established in Michigan and Wisconsin, with numbers there of 405 and
425 respectively. Wolf numbers in those two states combined have exceeded
100 for the past 12 years, thereby exceeding the population criteria identified
in the recovery plans.
The Service’s
current proposal, if finalized, would also remove ESA regulation of critical
habitat for the gray wolf in Michigan and Minnesota, and eliminate special
rules for wolf management in Minnesota, as they are no longer required.
Once removed
from the threatened and endangered species list, gray wolves in the Western
Great Lakes DPS will be managed by the states and tribes. The Michigan, Minnesota,
and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources have developed plans to guide
wolf management actions in the future. The Service reviewed these plans and
found they established a sufficient basis for long-term wolf management.
Issues such as control of problem animals, hunting and trapping, as well
as long-term health of the wolf population, will be governed by the appropriate
state or tribe.
The Service’s
proposal comes after court rulings which overturned a 2003 final rule that
reclassified wolves in most of the lower 48 states from endangered to threatened
and established three distinct population segments of the gray wolf. The
rulings also invalidated a 2004 proposal to delist the gray wolf in the eastern
United States. The current proposal replaces the previous actions with a
much smaller Western Great Lakes DPS – a DPS that is narrowly structured
around the core areas where wolves have exceeded their recovery goals since
1999 and the locations in which wolves have dispersed from the core areas.
In a separate
action, the Service recently announced its intention to propose delisting
gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Today’s proposal would
not affect gray wolves in the West (the Northern Rocky Mountains) or in the
Southwest, nor would it affect red wolves, a separate species found in the
Southeast.
The Service’s
proposal to remove gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes DPS from the threatened
and endangered species list is available for review. A series of public hearings
will be held throughout the Western Great Lakes DPS. The Service will announce
details of these hearings in the near future. Following the public comment
period, the Service will evaluate all information and make a decision on
whether to finalize the proposal. Until a final decision is made, wolves
in the Western Great Lakes DPS remain listed under the ESA as endangered
and threatened.
Comments on
the proposal to remove gray wolves in the Western Great Lakes DPS from the
federal list of threatened and endangered species may be submitted by e-mail
to WGLwolfdelist@fws.gov or by
sending a letter to WGL Wolf Delisting, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Whipple
Federal Building, 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, MN 55111-4056 or by sending
a fax to 612-713-5292, or through the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Comments on
the proposal will be accepted for 90 days from the date the rule publishes
in the Federal Register.
More information
on gray wolf recovery and the Service’s proposal to delist gray wolves
in the Western Great Lakes DPS can be found at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/
The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving,
protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for
the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre
National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife
refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas.
It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices
and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife
laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations,
restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife
habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments
with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance
program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes
on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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