Wisconsin agrees: Delist wolf

Editorial from the Wisconsin State Journal Sept. 28, 2011

Wisconsin is now home to some 800 gray wolves.

Wisconsin has more wolves than every state in the nation except Alaska and Minnesota.

These majestic animals have more than tripled in numbers here over the last decade, thriving far beyond state and federal recovery goals.

So why are they still on the federal endangered species list?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should remove the gray wolf from the list in and around Wisconsin so wildlife officials here can better protect farm livestock and pets — as well as the wolf's reputation.

Virtually every member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation — even U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison — agrees. The delegation this week sent a letter asking Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to delist the wolf.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed doing just that. Yet its process is incredibly slow and complicated by an effort reclassifying gray wolves in the eastern United States as a new species. Read more..