OUTDOOR HUB
Daniel Xu | March 21, 2014
There are now an estimated 6,100 gray wolves in the Lower 48 states, back from the handful in 1960.
Image courtesy USFWS
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell received a letter on Wednesday signed by 74 congressional representatives, urging her to drop the plan by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to end federal protections for the gray wolf. Led by US Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR), the house members said in the letter that the proposed delisting could undermine decades of conservation work and halt wolf recovery in the Lower 48 states.
“The Service should rescind the proposed rule immediately, and continue to review the taxonomic history of wolves in the eastern United States, and other factors related to the status of endangered gray wolf populations and their associated ecosystems before removing federal protection,” the letter concluded.
Last year, a similar letter was sent to USFWS director Dan Ashe by 72 members of Congress in support of the delisting.