Campaign to Save America’s Wolves – 2009-04-04 22:51:09
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(April 2, 2009) — On Thursday — just one year after the famous wolf Limpy was shot and killed just outside Yellowstone National Park — President Obama’s pick as Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has taken it upon himself to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Greater Yellowstone, the Northern Rockies and other parts of the American West!
As a result of Salazar’s action, more than 1,000 wolves in Idaho and Montana could be killed by people like Idaho Governor Butch Otter, who recently reaffirmed that he wants to be one of the first to shoot a wolf.
• Watch our new Western wolves video… and help us save wolves.
Please watch our powerful new Northern Rockies wolf video right now and urge President Obama now to restore life-saving protections for our wolves!
Salazar’s decision is a mistake, and we have to let the Obama Administration know it. To send a strong message, we need to generate at least 100,000 messages in support of protections for our wolves before May 4th, when the federal protections are lifted and the wolf killing can resume.
Last year, when the Bush/Cheney Administration briefly eliminated these vital federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies, more than 100 of the region’s estimated 1,500 wolves were killed in just a couple of short months, until Defenders succeeded in convincing a federal judge to stop the killing.
Now Secretary Salazar has approved the exact proposal for which the Bush Administration was roundly criticized. And he did so with no consultation with wildlife advocates and with no warning of what he was thinking.
This time, unless this latest decision to remove federal protection from wolves is reversed, even more wolves — as many of two-thirds of the region’s wolf population — could be killed. The new wolf rule will also eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves that are only now beginning to return to parts of their historic range in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Utah.
THE LETTER
As a supporter of Defenders of Wildlife and someone who cares about protecting America’s wildlife, I urge you to maintain Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies.
As you know, On March 6th, 2009, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the Bush Administration’s discredited plan to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the Greater Yellowstone states of Idaho and Montana — a decision that could lead to the deaths of more than 1,000 wolves!
Eliminating Endangered Species Act protections for these wolves should be contingent upon two things that have not yet been achieved: 1) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs a delisting plan based on current science that guarantees a minimum wolf population level that is both sustainable and genetically connected. The delisting plan’s goal of 300 to 450 wolves in the region is far to few to sustain a healthy wolf population. 2) All of the states in the delisting area must have wolf management regulations that provide for a sustainable and well connected wolf population.
Interior Secretary Salazar’s decision fails to adequately address biological concerns that led a Federal court to overturn the same wolf delisting rule late last year when the Bush Administration issued it. The Secretary’s decision also fails to address important concerns with Idaho’s state wolf management plan and state regulations that undermine the goal of a sustainable wolf population by killing massive numbers of wolves.
Under current state wolf management plans, more than two-thirds of the region’s wolves could be killed, threatening the overall future of wolves in the region. In fact, current state wolf management plans seem more directed at wolf eradication than sustainable management of a wildlife population that the federal government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars to rescue from extinction.
For all these reasons, I sincerely hope you will reconsider your administration’s position on wolf management in the Northern Rockies.
Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to your reply.
