A proposed rule by the federal government could put gray wolves and other endangered species in danger.
Recently the federal government has suggested lifting protection for gray wolves under the principle that their habitat is unsuitable, an Ohio State University news release reported.
The wolves' original U.S, habitat, which was believed to have been deemed unsuitable, only because humans "wouldn't tolerate them," is still largely unpopulated by the species.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is supposed to detail what the threats are and if they're substantial enough, they're supposed to list a species and put in place policies to mitigate the threats," Jeremy Bruskotter, associate professor in The Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources and lead author of the paper, said in the news release.
"Here, they're saying that they recognize the threat of human intolerance and instead of mitigating the threat, they're just going to say the land is unsuitable," he said.
FWS first proposed the removal of gray wolves from the threatened and endangered species list back in June, but many experts disagree the wolf populations have been adequately restored. The wolves were almost entirely wiped out by humans in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
"Anytime the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finds that something is in the way of a species' recovery, they can just say the habitat is unsuitable for the species and disregard the threat altogether," Bruskotter said.
The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973; in order for a species that previously required protection under the act to be taken off the list the FWS must prove its populations has recovered in a "significant portion of its range."
Currently the gray wolf has only been recovered in the northern Rockies and upper Great Lakes, which excludes 85 percent of its original habitat.
"So what the service is saying is that wolves are going to be called recovered in most of the United States despite the fact that very few wolves live outside these two recovered areas," Bruskotter said. "Wherever they are now, that's their range - which means taking the historic and geographic component out of the listing process."
The FWS has been feeling pressure from livestock producers and other groups to lift the wolves' protection.
"The law is supposed to help the protected species, not just describe the threats to that species. But to construct this delisting rule, they've had to interpret policy and science in every case in a way that either disregards threats to wolves, or treats them as insurmountable," Bruskotter said. "They're doing the opposite of what the act requires."
