Wolves stay on endangered species list
Prospect is off for establishing hunting season
The Associated Press
WAUSAU The process of removing Wisconsins growing population of gray wolves from federal protection is on hold.
Its also raising fears about a public backlash against the animals, the coordinator of the states wolf management program said Wednesday.
The wolf is again considered an endangered species in Wisconsin because of a federal judges ruling in Oregon restricting the states efforts to manage the population, said Adrian Wydeven of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
All talk of having a possible hunting season for them is now off, he said.
The animals designation was changed to a threatened species in April 2003, meaning federal agents could kill problem wolves in Wisconsin rather than trap and relocate them to prevent them from preying on livestock and other domestic animals.
There was hope the wolf would be removed from the federal species list by this summer, giving the DNR total say on how to manage them, including possibly creating a hunting season to control them.
Even though the wolf is back on the endangered species list, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted the DNR a permit last week to kill up to 34 problem wolves this year under some circumstances, Wydeven said.
Things are kind of up in limbo right now and we may, for a few years, have to just go by year-to-year permits from the Fish and Wildlife Service to get special authority until we are delisted, he said.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland, Ore., ruled in February that the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act when it relaxed protections on many of the nations gray wolves.
Jones ruled the government acted improperly by combining areas where wolves were doing well, such as Montana, with places where their numbers had not recovered.
The judge also found the Fish and Wildlife Service did not consider certain factors listed in the Endangered Species Act in evaluating the wolfs status, including threats from disease, predators or other natural or manmade dangers.