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By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block<\/em> \u00a0<\/p>\n What just happened in the U.S. House of Representatives could spell tragedy for gray wolves. Thursday\u2019s vote on H.R. 845, a bill to remove federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states, passed by the smallest of margins, 211-204. Now, this legislation moves to the Senate, where we still have a chance to stop it. \u00a0<\/p>\n The last thing this nation needs is a pathway to more reckless trophy hunting and recreational trapping seasons\u202fthat target wolves.\u202fBut that\u2019s what H.R. 845 is all about.<\/p>\n Once pushed to the brink of extinction in the lower 48 states by\u202fwidespread extermination campaigns and\u202fbounty programs,\u202fwolf populations gradually began to recover\u202ffollowing their\u202fprotection under the\u202fEndangered Species Act\u202fin 1974.\u202fBut we know that the species is far from\u202frecovered\u2014it\u2019s not even close. \u00a0<\/p>\n We also know that threats to the survival of wolves will ramp up following their delisting. That knowledge comes through bitter experience, and it\u2019s why we\u2019ve repeatedly gone to court to stop the carnage<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n In Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, for example (states where wolves\u202flost their federal protections through congressional and agency actions in the 2010s),\u202fwolves\u202fhave suffered\u202frelentless persecution by trophy hunters, recreational trappers and even state agents in the intervening years, including by methods like strangling neck snares and leghold traps.\u202fIdaho allows year-round killing in most parts of the state\u202fwith the goal of\u202fslashing the population by 60%<\/a>\u202fby 2028. Entire wolf families can be killed in their dens\u202fwith victims as young as four to six weeks old.\u202fIn Montana, a single person can kill up to\u202f30 wolves\u202fevery year, annihilating entire wolf packs.\u202fIn Wyoming<\/a>, wolves can be killed at any time, by any method, in most of the state.<\/p>\n The record is also grim in the Great Lakes region, where wolves were delisted from late 2011 until 2014. Nearly 1,500\u202fwere killed in just three\u202ftrophy\u202fhunting\u202fand recreational trapping\u202fseasons, including many pups. More recently, when wolves again lost their federal protections in 2021,\u202ftrophy hunters in Wisconsin killed more than 200 wolves in\u202fless than\u202f60 hours<\/a>\u202fduring the critical breeding season. Most were killed after being chased down and cornered by packs of dogs. \u00a0<\/p>\n We hear a whole lot about \u201cfollowing the science\u201d from those who want to kill wolves in these states, but that\u2019s not what\u2019s happening. There are\u202fno scientific justifications for killing wolves<\/a>.\u202fWolves play a key role in keeping\u202fnature in balance<\/a>. Studies have shown that killing\u202fa\u202fsingle wolf\u202fcan cause the\u202fentire family pack to fall apart<\/a>\u202fand lead to\u202fadditional\u202fdeaths.\u202fConflicts\u202fbetween\u202fwolves\u202fand domestic animals\u202fare currently\u202fvery rare<\/a>, while killing wolves can cause\u202fmore\u202fconflicts<\/a>\u202fdue to the social disruption it creates. \u00a0<\/p>\n Even though they claim to want to minimize wolf predation, the advocates of killing wolves aren\u2019t big on support for non-lethal, proactive conflict prevention measures, like range riding (people patrols), carcass disposal, fencing and other strategies. These\u202fare\u202fhighly effective<\/a>\u202fand we know that there are easy ways to keep both wolves and other animals safe when the will is there. \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth noting that the minimal federal recovery goals\u202ffor wolves as articulated decades\u202fago are less relevant today given our better understanding of population dynamics. We now\u202fknow that\u202fmany more wolves are needed<\/a>\u202fthan originally thought to\u202fensure the genetic health of the population and their ability to fulfill\u202ftheir\u202fvital\u202fecological role. \u00a0<\/p>\n Years before he gained acclaim as an author and conservationist, Aldo Leopold was killing wolves as an employee of the U.S. Forest Service. One fall day, from atop a rimrock canyon in New Mexico, Leopold shot a gray wolf. She was still breathing when he reached her, \u201cin time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n It took Leopold several decades more to make the transition from exterminator of wolves to champion of their preservation, but in doing so, he laid the groundwork for the post-World War II transformation in attitudes concerning wolves and other carnivore species. The movement that coalesced around the preservation of wolves and wildness in those years is a true American legacy, and we will defend it against anyone who seeks to destroy it today. \u00a0<\/p>\n