Animal protection and environmental advocates in Minnesota and nationally have informed federal regulators that they would accept a reduced level of protection for wolves in order to avert a congressional effort to remove all protections for the species.
The position, spelled out this week in a petition led by the Humane Society of the United States, asks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act as "threatened." If adopted, it would mean that wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and elsewhere couldn't be hunted, but the animals could be killed under federal guidelines to protect livestock and solve other conflicts.
Maureen Hackett, president and founder of Minnesota-based Howling for Wolves, said her organization supports the petition as a way to deal with members of Congress who are preparing legislation to undo a Dec. 19 federal court decision that restored certain federal protections for wolves and ended short-lived wolf hunting and trapping in Upper Great Lakes states.
"We think it's a good compromise," said Hackett, whose group wants to ensure an end to recreational killing of wolves as part of state wildlife management plans.
She said across-the-board "threatened" status for wolves would keep them under federal jurisdiction.
Last month's ruling by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell threw out an Obama administration decision to "delist" wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and Wyoming. That decision had paved the way for hunting and trapping seasons that began in 2012.
Under Howell's decision, wolves in Michigan and Wisconsin reverted to virtually untouchable "endangered" status, while Minnesota's wolves reverted to "threatened" status.
If all gray wolves in the country were listed as "threatened," the petitioners would be accepting the down-listing of "endangered" wolves, which can't be killed for predation control.
