The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Sept. 26 approved the Manage our Wolves Act, a bipartisan bill offered by U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI).
The committee approved the bill, H.R. 6784, in a markup session on Wednesday. The legislation calls for removing the gray wolf in the contiguous 48 states from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife published under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, according to the text of the bill.
“Wisconsin farmers are now one step closer to having the legal means to defend their livestock from gray wolves,” said Rep. Duffy, who introduced H.R. 6784 on Sept. 12. “I’d like to extend a big thank you to the members of the Natural Resources Committee who also agree that states should be the ones to responsibly manage their own gray wolf populations – not Washington bureaucrats.”
U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) signed on as original cosponsors of H.R. 6784.
“The best-available science used by the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that the gray wolf has recovered and is no longer endangered,” Rep. Newhouse said. “I continue to hear from and work with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, which has been asking for the federal delisting of the gray wolf since 2013.”
State-management of the species must be reinstated, Newhouse added, “to allow for more effective and accountable management that responds to the needs of the ecosystem, other species and local communities.”
The management of gray wolves was transferred in 2014 to the federal government following two U.S. District Court decisions designating the animals for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Such a designation, the lawmakers noted in a Sept. 26 statement, removed a legal avenue for the nation’s farmers and ranchers to protect their livestock from wolves.
In fact, Rep. McMorris Rodgers sent a June 12 letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke formally requesting that the department delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act and oppose the reintroduction of the grizzly bear into the North Cascades.
“For too long, the people of eastern Washington have had to cope with the mismanagement of one apex predator, and the introduction of a second apex predator will only further risk lives and safety,” the congresswoman wrote. “I request that both decisions receive renewed attention and consultation in conjunction with local government officials and residents to find a solution supported by the people of eastern Washington.”
Rep. McMorris Rodgers also noted in the letter that retaining the endangered designation for the gray wolf and reintroducing the grizzly bear “would have devastating consequences” in her home-state district and she urged Secretary Zinke to “thoroughly revisit both of these issues.”
H.R. 6784 would remove the federal protections for gray wolves in Wyoming and in the Western Great Lakes regions in an action that would not be subject to judicial review, according to the bill’s text.
Additionally, H.R. 6784 would require the Secretary of the Interior to issue a rule by the end of fiscal year 2019 to remove the gray wolf in each of the 48 contiguous states, including the District of Columbia, from the endangered list “without regard to any other provision of statute or regulation that applies to issuance of such rule,” according to the text of the bill.
H.R. 6784 now heads to the full House for consideration.