Wyoming wolves could be gone before the snow is gone

We all have animals to whom we relate, and while I tend toward the small-- bees, birds, bats, frogs-- wolves deserve our attention.

From the Center for Biological Diversity: 

The feds are poised to remove all Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in Wyoming, leaving them under the power of state officials intent on slaughtering most of them to appease livestock interests. 

Wyoming law has already made 83 percent of the state -- home to at least five wolf families -- a "no-wolf zone," where anyone can shoot wolves and their pups on sight. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service predicts that, after federal protection is gone, no wolf packs will survive in this zone within a year.

Wolves would remain fully protected only within Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks -- around 4 percent of Wyoming. In the remaining 14 percent of the state, they would be hunted, trapped and snared, with the goal of reducing roughly 29 packs to around 10. 

Your urgent help is needed: Tell the White House to uphold protections for Wyoming's wolves until the state replaces its bloodlust with proper wolf management and respect.

Click here to find out more and take action.

Obama saves wolves!

January 21, 2009

Seattle, WA -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel Tuesday sent a memo to the heads of all executive departments and agencies, ordering a stop to all pending regulations until a legal and policy review can be conducted by the Obama administration.

A rule that would eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains except for those in Wyoming was scheduled to be published on January 27. Now it will fall under review with the new administration.

Among others, the Bush administration recently finalized rules that significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act, allow for mining deposits to be dumped within 100 feet of flowing streams and exempts large-scale factory farms from notifying government officials when they release unsafe levels of toxic emissions into the community. Earthjustice, a public interest law firm, filed suit against all of these rules.

The following statement is from Patti Goldman, Vice President of Program for Earthjustice:

"While we are pleased that the new administration has put a stop to these hasty actions, there are some rules we continue to monitor.

"Under the Emanuel memo, the wolf delisting rule will be withdrawn. This rule was extremely controversial and was rushed through even though a federal district court had declared the wolf delisting illegal in July. It defied the law which prohibits a state by state listing when the wolves do not respect state boundaries.

"For the vast majority of the midnight regulations, the Bush administration got them published in time to evade the Emanuel memo's freeze. Earthjustice has brought dozens of legal challenges to Bush rollbacks, which provides the ultimate pathway to reining in the excesses of the Bush administration."

Contact:

John McManus, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6707

Bush after the wolves....if only

If only the wolves could go after Bush!

In what the National Resources Defense Council calls a cruel parting shot, Bush has removed Endangered Species Protection from gray wolves in Montana and Idaho.

Bush removed their protection last year, also, and 110 wolves were slaughtered in the aftermath. Remember Hoppy? NRDC and other groups went to federal court and stopped Bush, but now, with only a few days left...

NRDC will be headed back to court next week.

Photo from Harlequeen's photostream at Flickr.

Wolves back on endangered list-- for now

In the 100 days since the Interior Department removed gray wolves from the endangered species list, 106 wolves have been killed in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. On Friday, Federal District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy issued a temporary injunction returning them to the list and casting serious doubt on the Fish and Wildlife's decision to remove them in the first place.

This decision came too late to save Hoppy-- wolf 235-- and the other wolves that have been killed. Earthustice is leading the legal challenge and the informational campaign to save the Northern Rocky wolves; check them out to see what you can do to help.

Letting the Buffalo Roam/ Hoppy: The Story of Wolf 253

Earth Justice reports on one of the casualties of the loss of Endangered Species status for gray wolves in the northern Rockies-- Hoppy, or, officially, Wolf 253,

part of the wolf population brought back from the verge of extinction in the Northern Rockies, and one of 1,500 gray wolves that lost federal protections in March when the federal government "delisted" wolves from the Endangered Species Act.

And on March 28, he was shot dead.

Hoppy wasn't just any old wolf. His distinctive gait, walking on three legs, made him one of the more easily recognized wolves in Yellowstone. Among his pack, too, he was unique: he was taller than Wolf 21, his father and the alpha male of the Druid pack that roamed the open fields in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley.

You can read more of his story here.

Defenders of Wildlife is reporting on what's happening to bison who wander out of Yellowstone National Park-- more than 1,300 of them have been killed just this year. That's more than a quarter of the park's population! You can go here to email Montana's Promotion Division to protest this needless slaughter.

Starting today, it's open season on wolves in Greater Yellowstone

Wolves have just been discovered in Utah! And a female from an Idaho pack was found in Oregon!

And, starting today, gray wolves can be killed in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, because federal protection for gray wolves in Greater Yellowstone has been stripped away.

You can sign a petition to support a national wolf recovery plan at the Care2 Petition Site here:

Wolf found in Western Massachusetts; assault continues elsewhere

Genetic tests have confirmed that the first wolf in more than 160 years was found in Massachusetts in October, the Boston Globe reported March 4. The last confirmed sign of any wolf in New England was in 1992 east of Bangor, Maine. Are wolves on their way back in the Northeast?

Wolves had been hunted to regional extinction in Massachusetts by the mid-1800's, at about the same time that coyotes began to increase. Coyotes are often considered to be urban and rural pests; studies in Yellowstone National Park have shown that after wolves were reintroduced there in 1995, the coyote population was reduced by 50%.

The nearest wolf population to New England is in Southern Quebec, according to the Maine Wolf Coalition,
which promotes wolf restoration in Maine. Although the U.S. Dept. of the Interior had been dragging its feet in implementing a 2003 wolf restoration law, a recent ruling by the U.S. District Court in Vermont has ordered the government to get on with the business of restoration of the wolf population in Vermont and Maine.

Elsewhere in the country, however, wolves are not faring so well. Last month The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the protected status of wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, allowing hunting to take place. Aerial shooting of Alaskan wolves has been approved by the Alaskan state government. Wolves, foxes, bears and 10,000 other wild animals a year are being poisoned with sodium cyanide and sodium fluoroacetate in a misguided attempt to control coyotes. You can send a comment to the Environmental Protection Agency to ban these chemicals at the Care2 PetitionSite, and speak out for wolf protections at the Defenders of Wildlife website.

In November I wrote about the return of fishers and moose to Massachusetts, thanks to the increasing reforestation of our state. Seems to me that learning to share our environment with other animals will help us to save our environment for ourselves.