House passes Sean Duffy-sponsored bill to drop legal protections for gray wolves

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House passed a bill Friday to drop legal protections for gray wolves across the lower 48 states, reopening a lengthy battle over the predator species.

Long despised by farmers and ranchers, wolves were shot, trapped and poisoned out of existence in most of the U.S. by the mid-20th century. Since securing protection in the 1970s, wolves have bounced back in the western Great Lakes states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, as well as in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the wolf's status and is expected to declare they've recovered sufficiently to be removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The House bill would enshrine that policy in law and restrict judicial review of listing decisions. The measure was approved, 196-180, and now goes to the Senate, where prospects are murkier.

The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., said farmers in Wisconsin and other states are "one step closer to having the legal means to defend their livestock from gray wolves."

States should be responsible for managing wolf populations, "not Washington bureaucrats," Duffy said.

Environmental groups and many Democrats slammed the bill as a last-ditch effort by Republicans to push a pro-rancher agenda after losing control of the House in this month's midterm elections.

"This final, pathetic stab at wolves exemplifies House Republicans' longstanding cruelty and contempt for our nation's wildlife," said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental group.

"The American people overwhelmingly support the Endangered Species Act and the magnificent animals and plants it protects," Hartl said. "We don't expect to see these disgraceful anti-wildlife votes next year under Democratic control of the House."

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Wisconsin had at least 905 gray wolves and 238 wolf packs last winter, according to the 2017-'18 tracking survey by the Department of Natural Resources.

That represented a 2 percent drop from the previous year and could be a sign the population of the apex predator is leveling off.

"It's possible wolves have filled the suitable habitat in Wisconsin," Scott Walter, DNR large carnivore specialist, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in June. "It's been anticipated the population would stabilize, but it's one year of data and we'll need more before we can make such a conclusion."

Wolves are native to the state but were gone by the middle 20th century due to unregulated hunting, poisoning and bounties.

Wolves began returning to Wisconsin from Minnesota in the mid-1970s. Aided by federal protections, wolf numbers in Wisconsin increased to 25 in 1980, 34 in 1990, 248 in 2000 and 704 in 2010, according to state estimates.

Journal Sentinel reporter Lee Bergquist contributed to this report.