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Wolves endangered no more

Wolves endangered no more

Friday, March 28, 2003
By ALASDAIR STEWART, stewarta@telegraph-nh.com

When was the last time you saw a wolf running wild in New Hampshire?

Seeing as how gray wolves were killed off in the state in the 19th century, a fair guess for most people would be “never.”

North of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, however, there are still plenty of wolves, stoking hopes among enthusiasts that they will eventually repopulate the Northeast by crossing on river ice, as they have in the past.

In fact, a couple of wolves have been reported in Maine over the past decade or so, and some wolf-coyote hybrids – so-called super-coyotes – have been observed in the region, too, evidence of wolves wandering south.

And although wolves could someday set up shop here, they might do so without the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

Based on growing populations of wolves in the Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes region, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reclassifying gray wolves in two broad regions – including the Northeast – as “threatened” after three decades on the endangered list.

Wolves in the Southwest will continue to be listed as endangered under a rule announced this week.

In addition to changing the wolves’ status, the rule also establishes three “distinct population segments,” one of which lumps the Midwest and Northeast together.

Michael Amaral of the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency looked into establishing a distinct population segment in the Northeast but was unable to do so because, among other reasons, a population has to be in a place to enjoy federal protection.

The lumping of regions is important locally because Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are home to about 3,000 wolves – well above Fish and Wildlife’s recovery goals so far – that will be included when calculating the health of the “regional” population.

In other words, should the Upper Midwest population continue to rise, the wolves could be de-listed entirely, which means any wolves that wandered into Northeastern states would do so without federal protection.

They wouldn’t go completely unprotected, because no states in the Northeast allow trapping or shooting of wolves, should they come snuffling across the border.

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