Having Received Their Money, Wolf Prostitutes Want Fame and Recognition for Wolf Delisting
June 12, 2015 by Tom
Too little too late in my opinion. I am disgusted by it actually. Where were these “professionals” back when the fake recovery goals, established in the Environmental Impact Statement and Wolf Recovery Plan, were laid out and met? It is pretty damned easy, some 20-plus years after the fact, when wolves have done and are doing their destruction, and numbers are as much as ten times greater than Ed Bangs had determined would be considered a recovered number of wolves, to sign your name to a document stating the support to “delist” the gray wolf.
Now that their monies are running out and they have their wolves everywhere they want them, it’s much easier to be brave and courageous and step up to the plate stating wolves no longer need to be listed.
Or maybe this is a case where they see the dangers coming about for which they should be held responsible. They pushed for and got, and then remained silent about recovered wolf species while the rest of us worked our collective posteriors off to counter their corrupt efforts of forcing wolves into human-settled landscapes and everything bad that can come of it.
They were still supportive of, gutless, and still in need of more money, when it took an act of Congress to get wolves delisted in Idaho and Montana. Evidently they didn’t think, at that time, that something more permanent should be done about wolf recovery. No, their personal agendas were not yet filled.
Now that they see Congress pushing for a similar bill as before, to get wolves delisted in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, AND to make sure the Courts have, no more authority over wolf delisting, these cowards are running scared, and fearing their next pet project might not be so much fun at taxpayer’s expense.
Oh, yes, the letter states how they fear that continued protection for wolves MIGHT cast negative feelings about wolves and the ESA. Again, why was this not a concern many years ago to these clowns? They lied to us and then remained silent. Now they want something done and to take credit for it; a tactic often employed by progressive totalitarians employing the useful idiots to promote agendas.
Perhaps the basis of this letter is a reflection of their fear that their power might be taken away from them by the creation of federal laws that effectively bypass the ESA and ban the courts from having a say.
I find it all disgusting. In my opinion it would be wrong to support this letter, even though it might be helpful in accomplishing the delisting of wolves. It still does NOTHING toward the ultimate cure and continues to support corruption.
Yes, I am bitter and I feel that I am justified in those feelings. I am not a part of, nor would I ever want to be, this post-normal scientific community climbing on board by signing this letter.
I cannot and probably will not, get beyond my anger for what has been done. To acknowledge these people’s effort at signing a piece of paper, when everything is safe and secure for them AND THEY HAVE ALL GOTTEN WHAT THEY NEED FROM WOLF RECOVERY, would be a travesty.
I have spent many years fighting against the corruption of wolf introduction and I will not quietly allow these people to now step up and claim themselves to be the saviors of wolf management.
In reality, they should be ashamed to sign their name to this, nor allowed to do so.
An open letter from wolf experts and other wildlife management professionals supporting delisting gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan
The undersigned wildlife management professionals and scientists agree with Dr. Dave Mech, Dr. Steven Fritts, Adrian Wydeven, Dr. Tom Heberlein, Ed Bangs, Dr. Lu Carbyn, Dr. Jim Peek, Dr. Paul Krausman, Dr. Mark Boyce, and Dr. Bob Ream that gray wolves (Canis lupus) should not now be listed by the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan (western Great Lakes states). This is consistent with the position of The Wildlife Society1. For at least a decade, wolf populations have recovered in these states to the point where continued listing under the ESA is no longer necessary or beneficial to future wolf conservation2.
The ESA is the world’s most effective legislation to halt the slide of threatened and endangered species into extinction. In broad terms, there are 3 main components to the ESA:
1. Identifying species at risk of extinction and providing federal protections for these species (“listing”);
2. Creating and implementing plans to reverse declines and identifying targets for when ESA protections can be removed and species returned to management by the states (“recovery”); and
3. Removing listed species once identified recovery targets have been achieved (“delisting”).
Steps 1 and 2 have worked well for many species but step 3 has become nearly impossible to achieve for wide-ranging or high profile species like gray wolves. Four efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and its cooperators to delist or down-list gray wolves in the western Great Lakes states have been foiled or reversed by litigation typically based on legal technicalities rather than biology. For those of us who have worked on and supported wolf and wildlife conservation issues for many years, it is ironic and discouraging that wolf delisting has not occurred in the portions of the Midwest where biological success has been achieved as a consequence of four decades of dedicated science-based work by wildlife management professionals. This success has been well documented in “Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States: An Endangered Species Success Story” (A. Wydeven, T. van Deelen, and E. Heske, eds. 2009, Springer) and in many other professional publications.
The efforts by Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and their cooperators including the USFWS, other federal agencies, tribal governments, and some non-governmental conservation groups have succeeded in accomplishing wolf recovery that has greatly exceeded recovery criteria in recovery plans3. In 1974 when wolves were originally protected south of Canada, only about 750 wolves occurred in northeastern Minnesota. Today, wolves are found throughout northern portions of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin with a midwinter (2014) count of >3,700. There are few, if any, areas in these or surrounding states where wolves could live on natural prey without exceeding socially tolerable levels of depredation on livestock and pets. We believe that failure to delist in the face of this kind of cooperative effort and biological success is detrimental to ecologically sound management and to continued progress in wolf recovery and management efforts in these states and elsewhere.
The USFWS has determined that adequate regulatory mechanisms for wolf management are in place in the western Great Lakes states. We believe it is highly unlikely that these states will allow their wolf populations to decline to the point where wolves are again threatened or endangered4. All 3 states have set minimum population goals that are much higher than the levels established for delisting in recovery plans and the USFWS has established post-delisting monitoring criteria for the states to follow. In the unlikely event that management efforts in these states prove to be inadequate, the proper and legally mandated course of action would be to relist the species. It is counterproductive to keep wolves as listed under the ESA because of speculation that the western Great Lakes states will not appropriately manage wolves and sustain their recovered status. There is no scientific evidence that wolf harvest systems established in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan have or would reduce wolves’ ecological benefits in the areas where wolves have recovered. Neither is there scientific evidence that regulatory systems in the western Great Lakes states have or would reduce the dispersal ability of wolves5 or that the harvests that occurred during the period between delisting and the 2014 court-ordered relisting were not sustainable and consistent with maintaining recovered status.
The undersigned strongly believe that it is in the best interests of gray wolf conservation and for the integrity of the ESA for wolves to be delisted in the western Great Lakes states where biological recovery has occurred and where adequate regulatory mechanisms are in place to manage the species. We believe that failure to delist wolves in these states is counterproductive to wolf conservation there and elsewhere where suitable habitat may exist. The integrity and effectiveness of the ESA is undercut if delisting does not happen once science-based recovery has been achieved. When this happens, it creates disincentives for the states to continue to be active participants in recovery efforts and creates public resentments toward the species and the ESA. It is important to the overall ESA goal of maintaining biodiversity to focus available funds on species that are truly threatened or endangered.
The signers and endorsers of this letter listed below include biologists with over 900 years of experience as wildlife academics, researchers, and managers; those of us who have worked directly on wolves have published over 31 books and monographs on wolves as well as hundreds of scientific articles on this species.
INITIAL SIGNERS (PRIOR TO WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION):
L. David Mech Ph.D., Hon. Dr. Ag.
University of Minnesota
Books: The Wolves of Isle Royale, National Parks Fauna Series No. 7 (1966); The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, Natural History Press (Doubleday Publishing Co. (1970); The Arctic Wolf: Living with the Pack, Voyageur Press (1988); The Way of the Wolf, Voyageur Press (1991), Wolves of the High Arctic, Voyageur Press (1992); The Arctic Wolf: Ten Years with the Pack, Voyageur Press (1997); The Wolves of Denali, University of Minnesota Press (1998 with L. Adams, T. Meier, J. Burch,and B. Dale); The Wolves of Minnesota: Howl in the Heartland. Voyageur Press (2000, editor); Wolves, Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation (2003, co-editor with L. Boitani); Wolf Hunting Behavior: The Behavior of Wolves Hunting Wild Prey, University of Chicago Press (2015 with D. Smith and D. MacNulty).
Monographs: Ecological studies of the timber wolf in northeastern Minnesota. USDA Forest Service Research Paper NC-52 (1971 coauthor with L. Frenzel); Deer social organization and wolf depredation in northeastern Minnesota, Wildlife Monographs (1981 coauthor with M. Nelson); Dynamics, movements, and feeding ecology of a newly protected wolf population in northwestern Minnesota, Wildlife Monographs No. 80 (1981 co-author with D. Fritts); Elk calf survival and mortality following wolf restoration to Yellowstone National Park, Wildlife Monographs (2008 coauthor with S. Barber-Meyer and P.J. White).
Adrian P. Wydeven MS
Cable, WI.
WI DNR wildlife biologist (ret.), state wolf manager 1990-2013
Co-editor (with T. van Deelen, and E. Heske) Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States: An Endangered Species Success Story” (2009 Springer)
Certified Wildlife Biologist (TWS)
Steven H. Fritts Ph.D.
Wesley, Arkansas
US Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Research Biologist (ret.)
Wildlife Professor University of Montana and University of Idaho (affiliate, retired)
Books and Monographs: Dynamics, movements, and feeding ecology of a newly-protected wolf population in northwestern Minnesota, Wildl. Monogr. (1981 with D. Mech); Wolf depredation on livestock in Minnesota, U.S. Fish and Wildl. Serv. Res. Publ. 145, (1982); Wolves for Yellowstone? A Report to the United States Congress Volume II, Research and Analysis (1990, USFWS team member and co-author/editor); Trends and management of wolf-livestock conflicts in Minnesota, U.S. Fish and Wildl. Serv. Resour. Publ. 181 (1992 with W. Paul, D. Mech, and D. Scott); Ecology and conservation of wolves in a changing world, Canadian Circumpolar Inst., (1995 with L. Carbyn, S. Fritts, and D. Seip, eds).
Tom Heberlein Ph.D.
Madison, Wisconsin
Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Community and Environmental Sociology
Author: Navigating Environmental Attitudes (2012, Oxford)
Lu Carbyn Ph.D.
Edmonton, Alberta
Emeritus Professor University of Alberta, Dept. Renewable Resources, Endangered Species and Ecosystem Studies
Research scientist Federal Dept. Environment, Science and Technology Division, Ottawa
Books and Monographs: Wolves in Canada and Alaska: Their status biology and management, CWS report series #45 (1983); Traditional knowledge and Renewable Resource Management in Northern Regions, Boreal Inst. Occ. Pub. # 23 (1988 with M. Freeman); Ecology and Conservation of wolves in a changing world, Canadian Circumpolar Institute #35 (1995 with S. Fritts and D. Seip); Wolves, bison. and the dynamics related to the Peace-Athabasca Delta in Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park (1993 with S. Oosenbrug and D. Anions); Wolves: an annotated bibliography, Northern Reference Series No. 6. Canadian Circumpolar Institute (1998 with E. McClaren and E. Maloney); The Buffalo Wolf – Predators, Prey and the Politics of Nature. Smithsonian Institution (2003).
Ed Bangs MS
Helena, Montana
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Western Wolf Recovery Coordinator (ret.)
Jim Peek Ph.D.
Moscow, ID
Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho
Department of Fish & Wildlife Science
University of Idaho
Panel Chair and first author: Management of Large Mammalian Carnivores in North America, The Wildlife Society Technical Review (2012).
Paul Krausman Ph.D.
Missoula, MT
Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona
Past President of The Wildlife Society
Editor, TWS/JHUP Wildlife Book Series
Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Wildlife Management starting July 2015.
Certified Wildlife Biologist, TWS
Monograph: Ecology of wolves in relations to a migratory caribou herd in Northwest Alaska. (1997, Wildlife Monographs with W. Ballard)
Mark S. Boyce, Ph.D.
Edmonton, Alberta
Professor of Ecology and Alberta Conservation Assoc. Chair in Fisheries and Wildlife
Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton
Formerly: Vallier Chair in Ecology, and Wisconsin Distinguished Professor at University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
Certified Wildlife Biologist, TWS
Monographs (wolf-related): Cumulative effects of human developments on Arctic wildlife, Wildlife Monographs (2005 with J. Johnson, R. Chase, H. Cluff, R. Gau, A. Gunn, and R. Mulders).
Gary Roloff Ph.D.
Mason, Michigan
Assoc. Professor Michigan State Univ.
John G. Bruggink Ph.D.
Marquette, Michigan
Northern Michigan University, Professor Biology
Bob Ream Ph.D.
Helena, MT.
Professor Emeritus, Univ. of Montana, College of Forestry and Conservation
Former Chair, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission (2009-2013)
Director, Wolf Ecology Project, Univ. of Montana (1973-1993)
C. Charles Schwartz Ph.D.
Bozeman, Montana
Montana State University (Adjunct, ret.)
Yellowstone Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team Leader (ret.)
Alaska Dept. Fish and Game Research Biologist (ret.)
Certified Wildlife Biologist
Sterling D. Miller Ph.D
Lolo, Montana
Univ. of Montana and Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks (affiliate)
National Wildlife Federation Senior Wildlife Biologist (ret.)
Alaska Dept. Fish and Game Large Carnivore Research Biologist (ret.)
Certified Wildlife Biologist (TWS)
Hank Fischer MS
Missoula, Montana
Special Projects Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation
Book: Wolf Wars: The remarkable inside Story of the Restoration of Wolves to Yellowstone. (1995, 2003)
L. Jack Lyon Ph.D.
Missoula, Montana
Emeritus Prof. Wildlife, Univ. of Montana
Research Project Leader, Intermountain Research Station USFS (ret.)
Research Leader, Colorado Division Wildlife (ret.)
Gary L. Alt Ph.D.
Lagunitas, CA
Pennsylvania Game Commission, Leader Statewide Research and Management Program (deer and bear), (ret.)
Environmental Consultant, Principal Scientist (Normandeau Associates) (ret.)
Joseph Van Os Photo Safari Leader
Pat Brown Ph.D.
Professor, Northern Michigan Univ
Pat Valkenburg MS
Fairbanks, Alaska
Alaska Department Fish and Game, Division Wildlife Conservation, Research Biologist, Research Coordinator, Deputy Commissioner for Wildlife (ret.)
Wildlife Research and Management Consultant
Certified Wildlife Biologist
H. William Gabriel Ph.D.
Florence, Montana
USFS biologist (ret.)
UN-FAO biologist (ret.)
Univ. of Montana (affiliate, ret.)
US BLM (ret.)
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