USFWS Proposes to Delist the Gray Wolf and Expand Recovery ...

Gray wolf (Canis lupus). (Credit: Gary Kramer/USFWS)

On June 13, 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published two proposed rules regarding the threatened and endangered listing status of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), opening a 90-day comment period on both. The first proposal involves delisting the gray wolf by 2014 in the remaining contiguous U.S. in addition to several already delisted populations within the Northern Rocky Mountains (Mont., N.D., S.D., Neb., Kan., Colo., Utah, and Wyo.) and the Great Lakes region (Ill., Ind., Iowa, Mich., Minn., Mo., Ohio, Wis.). Those distinct population segments were delisted in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and have since been managed by the states under USFWS-approved state management plans with five-year monitoring programs by the USFWS. Washington and Oregon also have management plans for the wolves currently recolonizing their states. This proposal would maintain protections for the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), by listing it as an endangered subspecies.

The second proposal would revise the existing nonessential experimental population designation of the Mexican wolf to allow raised wolves to be released throughout the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area in the Apache and Gila National Forests of east central Arizona and west central New Mexico.

These proposals are based on the best available science and a recent comprehensive review that includes new taxonomic data from Chambers et al. (2012). The USFWS reports that the current gray wolf listing needs to be revised. Now that some populations are considered recovered and have been delisted, the entire C. lupus species can no longer be listed as endangered. Instead, any endangered populations must be listed separately as either endangered subspecies (like the Mexican wolf) or so-called ?distinct population segments.?

According to a USFWS news release, ?there are at least 6,100 gray wolves in the contiguous U.S., with a current estimate of 1,674 in the Northern Rocky Mountains and 4,432 in the Western Great Lakes.? During the 2012 annual year-end survey, the Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team counted a minimum of 75 Mexican wolves living in the wild in Arizona and New Mexico, an increase from 58 in 2011.

The USFWS is seeking additional scientific, commercial, and technical information from the public and other interested parties during the comment period for the two proposed rules, prior to the USFWS?s final determination in 2014. Public hearing requests must be made in writing and within 45 days of the date the proposals were published in the Federal Register.

Thus far, more than 10,000 comments have already been submitted to regulations.gov.

Comments may be submitted until 11:59 p.m. on September 11, 2013, online or by mail to:

Public Comments
Processing, Attn: [*please use the appropriate docket number for each species ? see below]
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive
MS 2042?PDM
Arlington, VA 22203

*Please include the correct docket number for comment submissions:
Gray wolf: Docket No. [FWS?HQ?ES?2013?0073]
Mexican wolf: Docket No. [FWS-R2-ES-2013-0056]

?

Sources: Federal Register (June 13, 2013), FWS Gray Wolf Recovery (June 7, 2013), FWS Gray Wolf Recovery Press Release (June 7, 2013), FAQs for Gray Wolf and Delisting (June, 2013), FWS Bulletin (June 13, 2013).

More information: What States Are Saying; Federal Register notices on the gray wolf (or download the PDF) and the Mexican wolf (or download PDF); gray wolf profile page; Information on the Mountain Prairie Region gray wolf, the Midwest Region gray wolf, and the Southwest Region Mexican wolf; USFWS gray wolf Flickr page; USFWS Director Dan Ashe blog on wolves.

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/featured/usfws-proposes-to-delist-the-gray-wolf-and-expand-recovery-efforts-for-mexican-wolf/

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