As one of its final acts in office, the Bush Administration removed grey wolves from the list of protected species under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act.
Earlier attempts to do so were successfully blocked by activists on the grounds that state management plans were inadequate to protect the wolves. But a federal judge ruled that plans in Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Utah and Wisconsin were fitting to relax environmental and, perhaps, hunting regulations.
Defenders of Wildlife, a prominent conservation group, called the delisting “premature” and added that the species’ recovery in the northern Rocky Mountain region had “begun once again to restore natural balance to the [area].”
Wolf protections have long been challenged by wealthy and powerful ranching and farming interests that feel the protections threaten profits by putting livestock in danger. As a result, ecologically healthy predator-prey equilibriums suffer, affecting both the hunted species and others on the food chain. The wolves have been hunted almost to extinction in recent centuries.
