WFT? Taken off the list, but it’s still endangered.
Congress for the first time is directly intervening in the Endangered Species List and removing an animal from it, establishing a precedent for political influence over the list that has outraged environmental groups.
The groups are saying it sets an unnerving precedent by letting Congress (rather than a science-based federal agency) remove endangered species protections.
State officials want the wolf population limited because of the threat wolves pose to elk, moose and deer.
A spokesman for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Tuesday, “We need to be able to manage them as a state to balance them with other wildlife and landowner impacts pertinent to livestock.”
Whether the population of the wolf has actually increased is still not clear.