Keep Wilderness wild: Stop Congress from killing ESA protections for gray wolves

Nothing quite symbolizes wilderness and wild country like a howling wolf.

Unfortunately, anti-wolf members of Congress are at it again—trying to extinguish this quintessential cry of the wild by ending federal wolf protections and turning wolf management over to states.

Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has reintroduced a bill—that she has misleadingly retitled the “Pet and Livestock Protection Act” (H.R. 845)—requiring the federal government to remove the gray wolf from federal protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Alarmingly, the bill would also prohibit judicial review of this arbitrary, malicious mandate for currently protected gray wolves across the lower 48 states.

Last year, by a razor thin margin of 209-205, the U.S. House passed an identical version of this bill, ironically titled the “Trust the Science Act.” Thankfully, that bill died in the Senate and never became law.

In spite of wolves still occupying only a small portion of their original range in the lower 48 states, H.R. 845 would grant states full management control of gray wolves.

Tragically, we don’t need to wonder what state "management" of wolves looks like. In Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, gray wolves lost ESA protection in 2011 owing to a wolf-killing rider that was attached to a must-pass federal budget bill. In these three states, trophy hunters and trappers have already slaughtered—and continue to slaughter—thousands of wolves by various brutal and unethical means, including deep within Wilderness areas and along the border of Yellowstone National Park.

You may also recall what happened to wolves in Wisconsin in early 2021, right after the Trump administration briefly stripped ESA protections for all gray wolves in the rest of the lower 48 states. In less than 72 hours, trophy hunters and trappers in Wisconsin went on a wolf-killing rampage, slaughtering at least 216 wolves—20 percent of the entire wolf population in the state—including within various Wilderness areas. Hunters killed wolves at night with night vision technology and used dogs with GPS collars to track, chase, and corner wolves, which were then shot to death.

If H.R. 845 becomes law, wolves would no longer find refuge or roam safely in places like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota; the Headwaters, Whisker Lake, and Blackjack Springs Wildernesses in Wisconsin; and the Sylvania and Big Island Lake Wildernesses in Michigan.

H.R. 845 is a direct threat to gray wolves across the lower 48 states, the integrity of the Endangered Species Act, and the wildness of our Wilderness areas.

Wilderness Watch has long worked to protect wolves. And you—our members and supporters—have been with us every step of the way. Now wolves need our help again. Please raise your voice to protect wolves and help keep our Wilderness areas wild! 

Write your U.S. House Rep and demand they oppose H.R. 845.