The ‘Mythical Wolf’ and the Politics of Wolf Conservation in the U.S.

OnFebruary 10, 2022, a U.S. federal judge <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/documents/ag/Wolf_Delisting_Order_747978_7.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">restored protections</a> for gray wolves in much of the United States after gray wolves had lost protections under a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/29/gray-wolf-endangered-species-trump-administration" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Trump policy to delist </a>them from the Endangered Species Act. <ul> <li>One caveat: Wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming aren’t included because <a href="https://wildlifemanagement.institute/brief/february-2022/court-ruling-puts-gray-wolves-back-esa" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">they were delisted</a> in those states by Congress in 2011. For example, it’s still completely <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/wolves-5-things-to-know-about-gray-wolves-regaining-endangered-species-act-protection" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">legal</a> to aerial hunt wolves from planes in Montana, and the governor of Idaho recently signed a bill to kill <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-idaho-lifestyle-wolves-bills-f83cd2449975c977d167c0509bccab24" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">90% of wolves</a> in the state.</li> </ul> Journalist Joshua Partlow reported on the story in a February 2022 piece in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/02/10/gray-wolves-endangered-species-ruling/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, writing that “The controversy over wolf hunting this year has been particularly intense in Montana and the area around Yellowstone National Park, where gray wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after being eliminated by hunters in the 1920s.” <a href="https://medium.com/thewildones/the-mythical-wolf-and-the-politics-of-wolf-conservation-in-the-u-s-472b904a4915">Read More</a>