An ode to Federal lawmakers to take a time out and diligently reconsider their decision to federally delisting of the Wolf----Where is President Obama's voice on this issue?....Bill Clinton went and brokered a Forestry/Spotted Owl Agreement in the Northwest when the debate got heated .............I would like to see Obama step up here and state that Wolves should continue to be restored to the Appalachians in the North and Southeast,,,,,,,,,,,,that protections stay in place in Oregon and Washington.........How bout it Mr. President?

Feds should abandon

 planned delisting(WOLVES)

 in Lower 48

registerguard.com

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The recovery of the gray wolf is a success
 story that illustrates

 the effectiveness of the federal Endangered
 Species Act. But 

the Obama administration fails to see that it's
 a story whose final

 chapters have yet to be penned.

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday
 that federal authorities

 intend to remove endangered species
 protection for nearly 

all gray wolves in the Lower 48 states.
 A draft rule, expected

 to be announced shortly and finalized
 within a year, would 

hand over the management of wolf
 populations to state wildlife agencies.

Federal officials insist that the approximately
 5,000 wolves in the

 Northern Rockies and Great Lakes region
 are enough to prevent extinction.

 But that conclusion ignores warnings from
 scientists and conservationists 

that the wolves' numbers have not reached
 sustainable levels and that the 

agency's analysis of wolf subspecies and
habitat is flawed.

Those same critics challenged the federal
 government's decision two years

 ago to withdraw Endangered Species
Act protection in the Northern Rockies,

 Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington
 and give the job of wolf management

 to the states. Since that delisting, more
than a thousand wolves have been killed

 in sanctioned hunts, including 422 wolves
 last year in Idaho alone.

Now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is
considering removing protections in 

the protected areas that remain. Yet
the wolves are just beginning to get 

a foothold in Western Oregon,
Washington, Utah and Colorado, and
 it's too

 early to end federal protection in those
areas.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is under
 intense pressure from ranchers, 

hunters and some federal and state
officials to remove the remaining protections. 

As Jamie Rappaport Clark, the former
 director of the Fish and Wildlife Service

 and now the president of Defenders of
 Wildlife, notes, the agency's latest delisting

 decision "reeks of politics."

Wolves were once abundant in the West
 before white settlers arrived. But they 

were hunted nearly to extinction —
 and were wiped out entirely in Oregon 

— before a small number were reintroduced
in Yellowstone National Park 

and in central Idaho in the mid-1990s. Under
 federal protection, the animals 

thrived. At least 1,600 wolves now populate
 the northern Rockies, although last

 year the population fell by an alarming 7
 percent, primarily because of the 2011

 delistings and the recreational hunting that
 resulted.

Sally Jewell, the new secretary of the Interior,
 should take a hard look at the

 Fish and Wildlife Agency's decision, and
 pull the plug on the proposed delisting. 

Gray wolves need more time to find their
balance and build strong, genetically

 healthy populations that can endure
for many years to come.