Keep Wolves Protected in the Lower 48

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing to strip wolves across the lower 48 states of all Endangered Species Act protections! Wolves have only just begun to recover in large portions of the Pacific Northwest, California, southern Rocky Mountains and Northeast.

Retaining protections for wolves in the lower 48 will not impact the delisting decisions in the northern Rocky Mountains or western Great Lakes.   However, it will retain protections for a small number of wolves in the West – wolves that have slowly been moving back into historically occupied areas like the southern Rocky Mountains and Northeast.  These wolves may never recover if this plan is implemented.

Right now members of Congress are ready to step in. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are circulating a letter to the USFWS opposing the premature removal of wolf protections.  U.S. Representative’s Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Jim Moran (D-VA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Sam Farr (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and David Cicilline (D-RI) have already signed on as co-signatories.

ACTION:  Please call and write to your member of Congress to urge him or her to save wolves by signing onto Reps. DeFazio and Markey’s letter. Remind them that removing protections for lower 48 wolves is premature and will prevent their recovery in portions of their former historical range.