Gray wolf to be delisted

On March 6, Jennifer Houston, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), and Bob Skinner, president of the Public Lands Council (PLC), expressed their appreciation to the Department of Interior after an announcement that the agency will publish a gray wolf delisting rule in the Federal Register.

“The recovery of the gray wolf in the United States is a conservation success story. When the federal government collaborates with state wildlife officials and local land managers, it enhances our ability to protect the wildlife and ecosystems that we all cherish. This is exactly how the Endangered Species Act is supposed to work,” said Houston and Skinner. “Unfortunately, as ranchers know all too well, the current Endangered Species Act rarely functions as Congress originally intended.”

The pair continued, “Radical environmental activists use an endless cycle of lawsuits and procedural tricks to thwart effective conservation. That is why it has taken so long to delist the gray wolf, even though science has long shown the species had reached stable population levels. That is also why the Endangered Species Act’s overall effectiveness hovers at an abysmal rate of just two percent.”

“NCBA and PLC would like to commend Acting Secretary Bernhardt and his team for making this science-based decision,” Houston and Skinner said. “We look forward to continuing our work with the Department of Interior and state wildlife agencies as this process moves forward.”