Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Outdoors blog

Wolf advocates petition for threatened status

A gray wolf is seen on the run near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park in Park County, Wyo. The Obama administration on Friday June 7, 2013, proposed lifting federal protections for gray wolves across most of the Lower 48 states, a move that would end four decades of recovery efforts.  (Yellowstone National Park)
A gray wolf is seen on the run near Blacktail Pond in Yellowstone National Park in Park County, Wyo. The Obama administration on Friday June 7, 2013, proposed lifting federal protections for gray wolves across most of the Lower 48 states, a move that would end four decades of recovery efforts. (Yellowstone National Park)

PREDATORS -- Overlooking the most astonishing if not over-successful recoveries of wildlife under the Endangered Species Act, pro-wolf groups are still trying to argue that the effort to reintroduce wolves to the Northern Rockies has failed.

Wildlife advocates petitioned federal officials today to reclassify gray wolves as a threatened species, hoping to retain at least some protections that lawmakers in Congress want to repeal, the Associated Press reports.

Wolves are classified as endangered across most of the lower 48 states except the Northern Rockies. “Endangered” is a more protective listing than “threatened.”

Brett Hartl with the Center for Biological Diversity said today’s petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to downgrade the animals’ status is meant to pre-empt Congressional intervention.

Lawmakers from the western Great Lakes and Wyoming have proposed lifting federal protections entirely in their states. That would put wolves under state control and allow hunting to resume after it was barred by the courts.

Spokesman Gavin Shire says the Fish and Wildlife Service will review the petition.



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

Follow Rich online:




Go to the full Outdoors page