Welcome to the 28th edition of Windows on Wildlife! This week’s edition is late getting published, so the deadline for linking up this week will be extended into the weekend. If you have a recent post about wildlife you would like to share (it can be anything: birds, insects, mammals…) scroll down to the end of the post and add your site. I will compile and post all additions the following week. Please don’t forget to link back here (I’d love it if you’d add the Windows on Wildlife button to your post which you can find on our sidebar) and visit other blogs that have articles to share. Thanks for stopping by!
The gray wolf was delisted from the Endangered Species list in 2011. The result is that the fate of the gray wolf now lies with each state where wolves reside. Many states have started to allow – and actively promote – wolf hunting, and the delisting results in less protection for migrating individuals coming into the US from Canada – which right now is the only way a wolf population will return to the Northeastern US.
What’s most upsetting is that this delisting was done as a result of political pressure – not scientific research!!!
The Center for Biological Diversity is urging people to contact their members of congress to tell them to support a letter written to the US Fish and Wildlife Service opposing this premature removal of protection for wolves.
Gray wolves once roamed the vast majority of the country, but were nearly wiped out by government extermination programs. Their recovery in the northern Rockies and Great Lakes has been a success, but the job of returning wolves to the American landscape is still far from complete.Right now members of Congress are ready to step in. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are circulating a letter to the Service opposing the premature removal of wolf protections.U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has already signed on as a lead co-signatory.
Please call your member of Congress at (202) 224-3121. Urge him or her to save wolves by signing onto Reps. DeFazio, Markey and Grijalva’s letter; then get more information and take action by clicking here.
This is a species that still deserves protection – if you’re not willing to make a direct call, click the link above, or visit the Center for Biological Diversity’s website to send a letter to your member of Congress.
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Linking up this week with Nature Notes:
Such an endearing photograph. Good issue to spotlight. That is terrible when political issues result in endangered species being taken off the list.
I couldn’t agree more, Carver. That’s what’s got wildlife activists so riled up. It would be one thing if the US Fish and Wildlife Service had made this decision based on years of research that shows the wolf populations to be stable. We might not agree with their decision, but could at least understand why they thought these populations could withstand not just a loss of protection, but hunting. But for Congress to have pressured USF&W to delist wolves because of special interests is infuriating.
I just sent a letter to Sen. Pingree here in Maine. I have a soft spot for wolves, as you probably know. Thanks for sharing this info. Wolf hunting just seems so needless.
Awesome – thanks for speaking up! I love how easy these folks and others have made contacting our representatives – it makes a huge difference in my ability to take action.
Great post! Nice initiative!
http://amitaag.blogspot.in/2013/02/call-beach-by-any-other-name.html
Thank you, and thanks for the visit, Amit!
Any country the losses it wolves has lost a part of its soul.
We spend millions on olympic gold medals and yet we wont spend the dollars needed to protect things that we can never get back – its a mistake!
Cheers – Stewart M – Melbourne
It is rather shocking to think about the things our countries are willing to spend money on, and what they’re not…
I just watched a program on ‘The Nature of Things” on the Coywolf…really really interesting.. it is a Canadian program that I can get there…Michelle
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/meet-the-coywolf.html
Ooo… thanks for sending the link along, I’m really excited to watch this!
I get the newsletter and have been following the fate of the wolves..I can certainly call as I have on other issues. Why.. why..why.. Thank you for linking up to Nature Notes Cynthia… Michelle