BREAKING: USFWS is attempting to delist gray wolves. CLICK HERE to urge the President to withdraw the appeal.
If we don’t ACT IMMEDIATELY we could lose them for good. The Biden Administration is actively trying to delist wolves. And we need your help.
The Gray Wolf is still in Grave Danger
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Photo by Wolf Conservation Center
Since the species was delisted in 2021, more than 2,900 gray wolves have been killed in the continental United States. On February 10, 2022, a federal judge restored federal protections to wolves in much of the contiguous United States. However, protections were not restored to wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain Region where over 80% of the slaughter occurs.
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"Raise Your Voice" starring Jason Momoa and created by Sender Films for The #RelistWolves Campaign.
How we got here:
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1974: Wolves became one of the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act after government sponsored hunts across the country decimated the population. As the species had a chance to recover, its numbers inched up to 6,000 across the continental U.S.
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2011: Congress removed ESA protections from Gray Wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming).
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2020: The Trump administration delisted wolves nationwide (in the rest of the lower 48 states). This emboldened states like Idaho and Montana into passing legislation that both allows for and encourages the mass slaughter (up to 90%) of their wolf populations and permits extreme hunting methods like baiting, trapping, night hunting, and chasing down wolves with packs of dogs and ATVs.
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2021: The Biden Administration announced that they were backing President Trump’s decision to remove protections for Gray Wolves despite an estimated population decline of 27% - 33% in Wisconsin after the February 2021 hunts and credible reports of wolf pups being slaughtered in their dens in Idaho in summer 2021. On September 15, the Department of Interior determined the deteriorating situation in the Northern Rocky Mountain Region warranted a status review but failed to temporarily relist the wolves thereby, greenlighting the continued slaughter of wolves in the interim.
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2022: On February 10, a federal judge restored protections to wolves in much of the contiguous U.S., but not to wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain Region (where we see over 80% of the killings).
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2023: On January 26, a Circuit Mediator temporarily delayed the release of the endangered status review of the gray wolf until February, 2024 for "administrative" purposes.
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2024: On February 2, USFWS announces they will not be relisting wolves on the Endangered Species List and will begin drafting a National Wolf Recovery Plan set to be published in December 2025.
Join us in calling on President Biden and the Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to protect gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and the greater United States for generations to come.
Where Hunts Are Happening
IDAHO
In 2023, Idaho passed a wolf management plan that would sanction the hunting of 60% of its wolf population. The state's budget allocated over $400,000 to pay bounties to hunters who killed wolves.
MONTANA
In Montana, the state government has sanctioned the killing of up to 85% of its wolf population starting in fall 2021. During the 2022 hunting season, hunters killed about 25% of the adjacent Yellowstone National Park's protected wolf population.
WYOMING
Since 2017, wolf hunts have decimated Wyoming’s wolf population. Most recent surveys from 2022 estimate that only 163 wolves remain in the state.
Photo by Jake Davis