SCI Disappointed Senate Wolf Delisting Effort Blocked, Urges Senate to Take Up S. 1306
Safari Club International (SCI) expressed its disappointment after an objection by Senator Cory Booker prevented the Senate from advancing an effort to remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and return management authority to the states.
Gray wolf recovery represents one of the nation’s greatest conservation success stories. After decades of conservation efforts, wolf populations have far exceeded recovery goals. Thousands of wolves now inhabit the lower 48 states and connect with healthy populations throughout Canada and Alaska. But despite this remarkable recovery, gray wolves remain listed under the ESA, largely due to years of litigation that have repeatedly overturned science-based delisting decisions.
“The science is clear: gray wolves have recovered,” said SCI CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “It is deeply disappointing that efforts to restore state management were blocked despite overwhelming evidence that recovery goals have been achieved and exceeded.”
As wolf populations continue to expand, wildlife managers, ranchers, and rural communities are facing growing challenges. Livestock depredation, increased conflicts with domestic animals, and declining big game populations in some regions have placed significant burdens on local communities and state wildlife agencies. In parts of the West, expanding wolf populations have contributed to substantial declines in elk and other ungulate herds, reducing hunting opportunities and impacting local economies.
SCI commends Senator Ron Johnson for seeking unanimous consent to advance wolf delisting legislation and for his leadership in advocating for science-based wildlife management. The organization is disappointed that objections were raised to what should be a bipartisan conservation issue.
For more than two decades, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, has concluded that gray wolves no longer require ESA protection. Those determinations were based on the best available science and reflected the species’ successful recovery.
“Congress has acted before to restore science-based wildlife management, and it must do so again,” said CEO Hamberlin. “Sen. Booker should know something about the importance of managing abundant predator populations given New Jersey’s challenges with black bears—including repeated maulings and home entries—until the state reintroduced a full, regulated hunt. It is unfortunate that he chose politics over science and responsible wildlife management.”
SCI urges the Senate to take up S. 1306, a bill that would remove gray wolves from the ESA lists and restore management authority to the states.
