In parting shot, Biden administration denies petitions to delist/downlist wolves

In one of a series of parting gifts, the Biden administration last week denied two petitions to downlist or delist gray wolves, saying the requests from the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and other sporting groups were not warranted.

Officials with the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (SAF) said the decision by the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) was a politically motivated “farewell folly” from the Biden administration on its two Endangered Species Act (ESA) petitions. The groups had requested that the USFWS delist gray wolves in the western Great Lakes and downlist West Coast wolves to threatened status.

According to the SAF, the petitions serve as a blueprint for successfully delisting western Great Lakes wolves and downlisting West Coast wolves in accordance with prior court decisions. In denouncing the decision, the group said the USFWS chose to wrongfully merge and deny the petitions as a whole to circumvent a “may be warranted” finding on the petition to delist gray wolves in the western Great Lakes.

“These denials couldn’t provide a clearer representation of what every day Americans have come to loathe from a federal government that plays politics instead of addressing their needs,” Dr. Todd Adkins, senior vice president at the Sportsmen’s Alliance, said. “Our petition to delist Great Lakes wolves is bulletproof, and the agency recognizes that. Yet, the administration couldn’t stomach making the correct decision, so they used smoke and mirrors to carry on the illusion that gray wolves still need ESA protections.” 

The SAF filed the petitions in June 2023, along with the Michigan Bear Hunters Association, the Upper Peninsula Bear Houndsmen Association, and Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association. After no response for more than year, the SAF notified the agency this past July of its intent to sue, and did file suit last September.

Michael Jean, litigation counsel at the SAF, said the groups submitted two separate petitions to USFWS, and they should have been treated as such. While the group wanted the two petitions considered in tandem, they did not want them consolidated because to deny one would automatically deny the other.

“Instead, the agency chose to merge the petitions and deny them both based on the agency’s ‘not-warranted’ finding to downlist West Coast wolves,” Jean said. “FWS failed to adhere to the ESA’s petition process requirements, and we plan to hold them accountable.”

Jean said the USFWS took over a year and a half to issue the statutorily-required 90-day findings on the two petitions, and they only did so after SAF brought suit to compel the agency to act. 

Adkins said SAF is now assessing potential legal challenges to the agency’s denial of the petitions: “This isn’t over, not by a long shot,” he said.

The petitions

According to the USFWS findings, the petitions requested that the Service designate and delist a western Great Lakes (WGL) subpopulation (DPS) of gray wolf due to recovery; and designate a West Coast States subpopulation of gray wolf and list it as a threatened species, as well as recognize a non-DPS remnant and continue endangered species protection for the non-DPS remnant.

Specifically, according to the SAF last year when it filed the petitions, one petition would recognize and delist a western Great Lakes distinct population of wolves within Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and areas of adjoining states, while the other petition asked the USFWS to exercise specific management options on remnant wolf populations outside of the western Great Lakes sub-population area and a Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) subpopulation segment created by Congress in 2011.

The SAF argued that wolf populations had far surpassed USFWS recovery goals in the western Great Lakes region, with estimates of 2,700 wolves in Minnesota, 1,000 in Wisconsin, and more than 600 in Michigan. The original goal for the species was 1,400 for Minnesota and a minimum combined population of 100 wolves for Michigan and Wisconsin together, the SAF stated.

In the second petition, the SAG asked the USFWS to create a West Coast wolf subpopulation consisting of the partially recovered and rapidly growing wolf populations mostly covering non-NRM wolves in California, Oregon, and Washington. That subpopulation would be listed as threatened, downlisting the population from endangered status.

“Assigning this remnant population into a new DPS will provide USFWS with much needed flexibility going forward,” the SAF stated.

Second, the petition asked that USFWS create a “non DPS” consisting of all wolves in the lower 48 states that are not otherwise included in an established DPS. 

“This will mean that all wolves outside of a DPS will continue to be protected under the ESA as endangered under the original 1978 listing,” the petition stated. “When taken together, the two petitions create a clear pathway for USFWS to recognize wolf recovery where it has taken place while continuing to ensure management flexibility under the ESA for remnant wolves in the West and throughout the country. Granting the requests within the two petitions in tandem also would align USFWS’ approach with federal court rulings in a number of cases over several years.”

The USFWS rejected those arguments.

“The petitioners failed to present substantial information for us to conclude that the petitions, considered together, provide a valid approach for revising the current gray wolf listed entities,” its findings stated.

The USFWS findings acknowledge that consideration of the two petitions as a whole doomed the SAF request for the western Great Lakes subpopulation.

“Based on our review of the petitions, we find that petitioners provide substantial information that the western Great Lakes population of gray wolf may qualify as a valid DPS under the Act,” the agency stated. “However, we find that the petitions do not provide substantial information supporting the petitioned action with respect to gray wolves outside of the western Great Lakes. They fail to provide substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that a gray wolf remnant in the lower 48 States or a West Coast gray wolf population may constitute a valid listable entity under the Act. Thus, we do not further consider whether revising the currently listed gray wolf entities to recognize a western Great Lakes DPS and delist it due to recovery may be warranted.”

Officials with the Humane Society of the U.S. praised the decision.

“Today, our federal government did not bow to the will of those who want to see wolves exterminated at the expense of sound science and ethics,” Amanda Wight, wildlife protection manager of the U.S. Humane Society, told various media. “Gray wolves are already absent from most of their historic range. On top of that they face immense persecution from trophy hunters, trappers and agribusiness.”

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.