Number: 2015-02
WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation is a strong supporter of scientific and professional management of wildlife species including the recovery of the gray wolf under the federal and state Endangered Species Acts; and
WHEREAS, gray wolf populations in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin have exceeded their recovery targets by a factor of ten; and
WHEREAS, the Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources developed wolf management recovery plans that were approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and were successfully implemented by the respective state agencies; and
WHEREAS, as a result of this successful restoration of the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, by federal rule, attempted to delist the gray wolf in the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin four times between 2003 and 2011; and
WHEREAS, each such delisting of the gray wolf was challenged in Federal Court on technical grounds, not based on its recovery status but on administrative or legal technicalities, which resulted in Federal Court decisions returning the gray wolf to the Federal Endangered Species list and removing state management of the species; and
WHEREAS, the latest Federal Court decision relisting the gray wolf on the Federal Endangered Species list occurred on December 19, 2014 with the court ruling that the gray wolf could not be removed from the Federal Endangered Species list until it had been fully recovered in its full historic range in 29 Eastern and Central states; and
WHEREAS, as a result of this latest court decision, state permits authorizing lethal control of wolves depredating livestock are no longer authorized, state laws authorizing land owners to kill wolves in the act of attacking domestic animals are no longer valid and state laws allowing management of wolf populations through harvest regulation no longer are valid; and
WHEREAS, based on recent and extensive experience, without state lethal methods of management, wolves will continue to cause significant depredation of domestic animals in the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Wildlife Federation, at its annual meeting assembled March 27-29, 2015 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, hereby supports the delisting of the gray wolf in the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin consistent with the professional scientific judgment of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.