Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?

UPDATE: On April 30, 2004, this bill passed on the House floor by a close 209-205 vote.

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote this week on a bill by Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colorado) to strip protections for the gray wolf. 

 We urge all Representatives to vote No. 

With the exception of the Northern Rockies population, gray wolves in the Lower 48 are protected under the Endangered Species Act, but protections have waxed and waned in recent years. In 2020, the Trump administration removed protections, i.e. “delisted” the wolf, but a court reinstated the protections, finding that the administration’s decision was flawed. 

By putting the decision in the hands of lawmakers, Rep. Boebert’s bill politicizes whether to protect wolves. Do we dislike them? If so, vote yes to strip protections. That’s no way to protect and recover a species, and despite the bill’s name (the “Trust the Science Act”), it takes decisions away from those who dig into the science. 

Until research tells us that the wolf population has sufficiently recovered, let’s keep them protected, and howling, even if their howls are eerie, even scary.