CFACT JOINS NATIONAL COALITION PETITIONING TO DELIST THE GRAY WOLF ACROSS THE LOWER 48
Petition urges U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to correct a listing that no longer meets the Endangered Species Act’s own definition of a species
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow announced it is helping spearhead a coalition that has filed a formal petition, initiated by American Stewards of Liberty (ASL), calling on the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to remove the gray wolf from the list of threatened and endangered species in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
CFACT is joined in the petition by ASL, the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition (KNRC), the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association (GLTPA), the BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC), and the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA).
The petition’s core argument is a scientific and legal one, not simply a population count. Gray wolves within the contiguous United States, the coalition contends, are not biologically distinct from the much larger, connected population of gray wolves across Canada and Alaska — and therefore fail to meet the ESA’s own definition of a “species” eligible for listing. Federal regulations require delisting once a listed entity no longer meets that definition, and the coalition argues this threshold problem has never been properly resolved.
FWS itself reached a similar conclusion in its 2020 final delisting rule, finding that the listed gray-wolf entity did not constitute a valid species, subspecies, or distinct population segment. A federal district court later vacated that rule on procedural grounds and reinstated federal protections, but the coalition notes that the underlying scientific analysis was never overturned.
“The gray wolf is not an endangered species,” said CFACT President Craig Rucker. “It is one of the most adaptable predators on the planet, with a circumpolar population estimated at 200,000 to 250,000 animals. Tens of thousands of wolves range across Canada and Alaska alone, and the modest numbers found in the contiguous United States are simply the southern edge of that same, continuous population. Calling that a separate, listable species stretches the law well past what the science supports.”
“Keeping a recovered species locked under permanent federal control isn’t conservation, it’s bureaucratic inertia,” Rucker continued. “Delisting will return authority to the states, ease unnecessary friction with ranchers, rural communities, and property owners, and free up federal resources to focus on species that are genuinely at risk.”
The petition points to abundant habitat and prey, stable-to-growing wolf populations, low disease and mortality pressure, and the existence of state wildlife agencies well equipped to manage the species without federal oversight. Gray wolves, the petition notes, are generalist predators with broad, expanding ranges across their principal U.S. territories.
Margaret Byfield, Executive Director of American Stewards of Liberty, which initiated the petition, framed the petition as a matter of following the ESA as written: “The federal government should not keep an outdated listing in place when its own analyses show the listed wolf groupings do not fit the Act’s current definition of a species. This petition simply asks the Service to follow the law and correct a listing structure that no longer matches biological reality.”
Under Section 4 of the ESA, FWS is required, to the maximum extent practicable, to issue an initial 90-day finding on whether a petition presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating the requested action may be warranted. A positive finding would trigger a full status review — it would not by itself delist the gray wolf.
CFACT views this petition as a straightforward test of whether the Endangered Species Act is being applied according to its text and its science, rather than being used to hold recovered wildlife under indefinite federal control.
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ABOUT CFACT
The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public policy organization established in 1985 to promote a positive environmental agenda rooted in sound science, property rights, and market-based solutions. Learn more at cfact.org.