Sunday, May 3, 2009

Wolves no longer protected in Northern Rockies

Wolves in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northern Rockies will no longer be apart of the endangered species list this Monday. The delisting of the wolves began with President George W. Bush's administration and was upheld by President Barack Obama after internal review. Wolves are now open for public hunts in a few states after decades of protection. They were placed on the endangered species list in 1974, after being killed through government-sponsored poisoning and hunting in 48 states. Environmental groups plan to sue on the grounds that there are still not enough wolves to ensure the population's longtime survival.

While wolves may be a nuisance to livestock owners, removing them from the endangered species list seems to completely undermine the protection they had received for numerous decades. There are merely about 1,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies. After being previously wiped out due to actions taken by the government, removing wolves from the list hints to a possible repeat of past mistakes.

7 comments:

Jesse Chung said...

1000 wolves in the entire NOrther Rockies? That seems way to small and what about this public hunting? People are going to just go out to shot wolves and like, each hung would take large percentages of the population. Seems like this would destroy all the decades of hard work in a matter of a year or two

Doria Charlson said...

I think this is a pretty misguided idea and that taking the wolves off the endangered species list will put them in harms way without allowing them to be protected in any way. I agree with Jesse, what was the point of putting them on the list just to take them off in a precarious situation when the population of wolves is still in danger.

I think this also has larger ramifications in terms of Obama's responses to future problems that might arise regarding the endangered species and the environment in general. I know that he has promised to make great strides in green energy and I am confident he will reduce the greenhouse gases produced by the country, but Obama needs to remember that there is more to saving the environment than simply making more fuel efficient cars and using solar power.

Paige Lenz said...

Its odd to set up hunting outings on a species that has been just taken off the endangered species list. Obama upholding this is definatly going to hurt him. It will also make him loose support of some anaimal rights groups, i think i saw a PETA add for obama, they probrboly wont endorse him as much or at all.

Unknown said...

If both Obama and Fmr. President Bush endorse the de-listing then there must be a good reason for it. I seriously doubt that Obama would do anything to screw up his popularity rating this early without lots of forethought, he plans to raise taxes for godsakes! He would need buckets of political capital to do that! I think that whatever moves he makes this early in his term are the right decisions, and, however much it hurts me to say it, I agree with everything he has done thus far.

Unknown said...

That is so dumb to take the wolves off the list, they're toast. Someone needs to protect the wolves because they can be deadly and no one wants to be attacked by one so many hunters are going to go out there and kill them. Obama what is going on? He needs to focus on the environment too. Like Jesse said 1,000 is nothing. We have more students are Aragon. Max be a little more opened minded, these are animals that are targets for hunters.

JN said...

I agree that it's silly to remove the wolves from the endangered species list when they have been protected for this long. I hope there isn't going to be any government-sponsored poisonings again after they're removed from the list.

Sandy de Sauvage said...

Both Bush and Obama supported the delisting of the wolves. The government even sponsered poisoning of the wolves? There must be a good reason for this.

Personally though, I am against this. With only 1,000 wolves left, the wolves should be protected. Hopefully, they will be placed on the endangered list again soon.