Legislation led by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin to delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee.
The bill, H.R. 764 or Trust the Science Act, would permanently remove the gray wolf from the list of federal endangered species and restore authority to control the gray wolf population back to state lawmakers and state wildlife officials.
“Activists endanger the Endangered Species Act by not removing species, like the gray wolf, when they have recovered,” says Tiffany. “It’s a scientific fact that the gray wolf population has met and exceeded recovery goals, and it’s time to celebrate this success by returning wolf management back to where it belongs, in states’ hands.”
In 2020, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted the gray wolf in the lower 48 United States through a process that included the best science and data available. Tiffany’s office says that at over 6,000 wolves at the time of delisting, the gray wolf has been the latest Endangered Species Act success story with significant population recoveries in the Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions. But last year, a California judge unilaterally relisted the gray wolf under the ESA.
Twenty-three members of Congress cosponsored the bill, including the entire Wisconsin Republican Congressional Delegation. Some of the groups that supported the bill included the Mid States Wool Growers Association, Wisconsin Cattleman’s Association and Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
See the bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/764