Green Supports Dropping Wolves from Threatened Species List
Wisconsin Ag Connection – 07/19/2004
Following a remarkable recovery in population, Green Bay Congressman Mark Green applauded a new proposal by U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton to remove the gray wolf from the list of threatened species currently protected by the Endangered Species Act.
“The gray wolf’s strong recovery in the upper Midwest has far surpassed the expectations of wildlife managers and all those who sought to protect this important species decades ago,” Green said. “But, because their numbers have rebounded so well, local land managers are now faced with the difficult task of controlling their population, which more than double what managers thought our state could safely hold.”
At a news conference in Green Bay, Secretary Norton announced that wolves in the eastern United States have recovered to the point where they can be proposed for removal from the list of threatened species currently protected under the Endangered Species Act. Norton also added that the gray wolf has climbed beyond the population criteria outlined in the species’ recovery plan, and states and tribes with wolf populations should now assume control over managing their numbers.
Last year, Green helped to successfully push the Department of the Interior to move the gray wolf from the list of animals protected as ‘endangered’ and reclassify it as a ‘threatened species.’