Rewilding Institute News
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Posted: 25 Apr 2013 06:47 PM PDT
gray wolf (Photo: USFWS – Midwest Region)
Walk for Wolves has been organized to raise awareness about the threats
affecting the wolf population throughout the United States. In addition to losing their habitat, the most detrimental threats come from government bills allowing hunting and trapping an indiscriminate number of wolves by methods such as shooting, trapping and snaring where the latter two are considered inhumane. Illegal hunting and trapping has also caused a high mortality in wolves and hatred driven wolf groups have been known to use brutal killing methods such as shooting wolves in the abdomen (gut-shot) and poisoning to name a few.
The masses need to know, our government needs to listen so we can
proactively change current legislations and offer protection to these species. Coexisting through adaption is the key to success in this matter. Join us as an organizer or as a participant and howl with us Saturday, April 27th in a 3-mile walk near your city.
Below is a list of days and locations for Walks for Wolves that
are taking place around the country this weekend:
Please contact Carmen C. Long with your questions:
Email: walkforwolves@gmail.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Draft Rule Ends Protections forGray Wolves ;abcnews.com
Federal wildlife officials have drafted plans to lift protections
for gray wolves across
the Lower 48 states, a move that could end a decades-long
recovery effort that has
restored the animals but only in parts of their historic range.
The draft U.S. Department of Interior rule obtained by The
Associated Press contends
that roughly 5,000 wolves now living in the Northern Rockies
and Great Lakes are
enough to prevent the species' extinction. The agency says
having gray wolves
elsewhere — such as the West Coast, parts of New England
and the Southern Rockies
— is unnecessary for their long-term survival.
A small population of Mexican wolves in the Southwest would
continue to receive federa
l protections, as a distinct subspecies of the gray wolf.
The document was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday the rule was under
internal review and
would be subject to public comment before a final decision is made.
If the rule is enacted, it would transfer control of wolves to
state wildlife agencies by
removing them from the federal list of endangered species.
Wildlife advocates warn that could effectively halt the species
' expansion, which has
stirred a backlash from agricultural groups and some hunters
upset by wolf attacks on
livestock and big game herds such as elk.
Some biologists have argued wolves will continue spreading
regardless of their legal
status. The animals are prolific breeders, known to journey
hundreds of miles in search
of new territory. They were wiped out across most of the U.S.
early last century following
a government sponsored poisoning and trapping campaign.
In an emailed statement, the agency pointed to "robust" populations
of the animals in
the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes as evidence that gray wolf
recovery "is one of the
world's great conservation successes."
Wolves in those two areas lost protections under the Endangered
Species Act over the
last two years.
In some states where wolves have recovered, regulated hunting
and trapping already
has been used to drive down their populations, largely in response
to wolf attacks on
livestock and big game herds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
recently reported that
wolf numbers dropped significantly last year in Wyoming, Idaho
and Montana for the
first time since they were reintroduced in the mid-1990s.
Federal officials have said they are monitoring the states' actions,
but see no immediate
threat to their survival.
In Oregon and Washington, which have small but rapidly growing
wolf populations, the
animals have remained protected under state laws even after
federal protections were
lifted in portions of the two states.
Between 1991 and 2011, the federal government spent $102
million on gray wolf
recovery programs and state agencies chipped in $15.6 million.
Federal spending likely
would drop if the proposal to lift protections goes through,
while state spending would
increase.
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