It’s time to delist the gray wolf

Fifty years ago, the Endangered Species Act was created to protect species on the brink of extinction and put them on the path to recovery. It was a noble effort, but unfortunately, it’s been hijacked by the radical environmental lobby and activist judges who use it as a weapon to block common-sense wildlife management.

 

Nowhere is this more evident than with the gray wolf.

 

Take Wisconsin, for example. When the state’s Department of Natural Resources first outlined a wolf management plan in 1999 (later updated in 2007), the target population was set at 350 wolves. Today, Wisconsin has well over 1,000 wolves — nearly three times that goal — yet the gray wolf remains listed as an endangered species.

This is what happens when the ESA is no longer about conservation but control. Even 10 years ago, 26 scientists called for the gray wolf to be removed from ESA protections in the Great Lakes region.

 

It’s past time to recognize the gray wolf success story and update the law to reflect reality. That’s why I introduced the Pet and Livestock Protection Act. This bill would delist the gray wolf, return management to the states, and ensure that activist judges cannot continue overturning science-based decisions.

This is a critical provision. Both the Obama administration (2012) and the Trump administration (2020) delisted the gray wolf, only to have judges step in and overturn those decisions. As a result, rural communities across the Rocky Mountains and western Great Lakes regions have been caught in a legal ping-pong match for years, with their livelihoods and safety hanging in the balance.

 

This legislation is hardly unprecedented. In fact, it follows the same legal model that successfully delisted wolves in Montana and Idaho in 2011. Despite the usual fearmongering from left-wing environmental campaigners, wolf populations in those states have remained well above recovery goals in the wake of this long-overdue delisting — proving that state-led management works.

 

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, wolf attacks have increased for the third straight year. Ask the farmers who have seen their livestock get ripped apart. Ask the hunters who have seen deer populations decimated. Ask the families who have lost pets right in their backyards. The body of evidence is grim, placing rural America directly in the crosshairs of Big City special interest groups far removed from the consequences of their actions.

 

Wisconsin’s wildlife policy should be set by the people who live closest to the animals, not by coastal judges and unelected bureaucrats thousands of miles away. It’s time to stop pretending the gray wolf is endangered. It’s time to prevent ideological extremists from using the ESA as a permanent power grab. And it’s time to restore common-sense and local control by delisting the gray wolf and returning management back to each individual state.