Federal Government Eliminates Protections for Wyoming Wolves

Earthjustice
Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced that it is eliminating federal protections for Wyoming wolves, handing wolf management over to Wyoming, which will open almost all of the state to immediate, unconditional wolf killing.
Last year, Congress gave hunters and trappers in Montana and Idaho the right to kill wolves that had been protected under the Endangered Species Act, nullifying a court victory won by Earthjustice that would have prevented the hunts. Since then, management of wolves in the two states has grown increasingly hostile as the states have expanded their wolf quotas and hunting seasons. In the 2011-2012 hunting season, hunters and trappers killed 545 wolves in Idaho and Montana. The two states have designed wolf hunting regulations for the 2012-2013 season that will result in even greater wolf killing.
Even while it approved state management in Montana and Idaho, the FWS previously denied this authority to Wyoming due to its extreme anti-wolf laws—specifically, Wyoming’s treatment of wolves as vermin to be shot on sight throughout most of the state. Today’s delisting decision reverses FWS’s earlier position, despite the fact that Wyoming’s wolf management plan continues to allow shoot-on-sight wolf killing throughout 85 percent of the state.
Earthjustice attorneys have worked through the courts for years to protect wolves in the Northern Rockies. Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine had this reaction to today’s announcement.
“With today’s delisting decision, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is authorizing an open season on wolves across 85 percent of the state of Wyoming and leaving wolves elsewhere in Wyoming without an adequate legal safety net. Wyoming’s wolf population is estimated to be only 328 wolves, far fewer than either Idaho or Montana. Wyoming’s anti-wolf policies could dramatically reduce that number.
Wyoming’s open season on wolves in almost all of the state would allow aerial gunning of wolves and even killing wolf pups in their den. Wyoming law also allows unrestricted killing of wolves if they are found to be ‘harassing’ livestock or domestic animals, even if wolves are intentionally baited into the conflict. These policies could drive wolves back into local extinction. This is no way to responsibly manage wildlife on the border of Yellowstone—our nation’s first national park.
Wyoming’s anti-wolf policies take the state backward, to the days when wolf massacres nearly wiped out wolves in the lower-48 states. Our nation rejected such predator extermination efforts when we adopted the Endangered Species Act.
The Endangered Species Act exists to protect America’s wildlife, including wolves. Handing management authority for wolves to a state with such openly hostile wolf management policies violates the Endangered Species Act. Citizens and groups across the country that support America’s wildlife will oppose this abuse of the Endangered Species Act. No state or federal agency can put itself above national laws that protect America’s natural heritage and wildlife that all Americans cherish.”
Visit EcoWatch’s BIODIVERSITY pages for more related news on this topic.
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Migratory beekeeping involves trucking millions of bees across the U.S. to pollinate different crops, including avocados and almonds. Timothy Paule II / Pexels / CC0
<p>According to <a href="https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/israeli-kitchen/beekeeping-how-to-keep-bees" target="_blank">From the Grapevine</a>, American avocados also fully depend on bees' pollination to produce fruit, so farmers have turned to migratory beekeeping as well to fill the void left by wild populations.</p><p>U.S. farmers have become reliant upon the practice, but migratory beekeeping has been called exploitative and harmful to bees. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/health/avocado-almond-vegan-partner/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported that commercial beekeeping may injure or kill bees and that transporting them to pollinate crops appears to negatively affect their health and lifespan. Because the honeybees are forced to gather pollen and nectar from a single, monoculture crop — the one they've been brought in to pollinate — they are deprived of their normal diet, which is more diverse and nourishing as it's comprised of a variety of pollens and nectars, Scientific American reported.</p><p>Scientific American added how getting shuttled from crop to crop and field to field across the country boomerangs the bees between feast and famine, especially once the blooms they were brought in to fertilize end.</p><p>Plus, the artificial mass influx of bees guarantees spreading viruses, mites and fungi between the insects as they collide in midair and crawl over each other in their hives, Scientific American reported. According to CNN, some researchers argue that this explains why so many bees die each winter, and even why entire hives suddenly die off in a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.</p>Avocado and almond crops depend on bees for proper pollination. FRANK MERIÑO / Pexels / CC0
<p>Salazar and other Columbian beekeepers described "scooping up piles of dead bees" year after year since the avocado and citrus booms began, according to Phys.org. Many have opted to salvage what partial colonies survive and move away from agricultural areas.</p><p>The future of pollinators and the crops they help create is uncertain. According to the United Nations, nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction, Phys.org reported. Their decline already has cascading consequences for the economy and beyond. Roughly 1.4 billion jobs and three-quarters of all crops around the world depend on bees and other pollinators for free fertilization services worth billions of dollars, Phys.org noted. Losing wild and native bees could <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wild-bees-crop-shortage-2646849232.html" target="_self">trigger food security issues</a>.</p><p>Salazar, the beekeeper, warned Phys.org, "The bee is a bioindicator. If bees are dying, what other insects beneficial to the environment... are dying?"</p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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