DAILY MINING GAZETTE • February 23, 2022
The gray wolf has regained federal protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) across much of the United States. On Feb. 10, The United States District Court for the Northern District of California struck down a decision that had removed wolves from the endangered species list in 2020. The court concluded that the decision to delist wolves – on the grounds that the species no longer needed protection – failed to prove that wolves could sustain themselves without ESA protection. Peter David, wildlife biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, said that the initial decision to delist wolves was questionable. “It basically delisted wolves from Maine to California based primarily on the health of the single population in the Midwest. It disregarded the importance of the large areas of historic range where recovery hasn’t taken place yet,” he said.