Obama Gray Wolf Decision Unpopular But Right
Environmentalists Boo Decision, but NCPA Expert Applauds
National Center for Policy Analysis E-Team [here]
Dallas (March 19, 2009) - The decision to remove the gray wolf from endangered species lists in Montana, Idaho and the Great Lakes Region is the environmentally correct decision even though it’s unfavorable among other so-called environmental groups, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett.
“It’s encouraging that President Obama and his Administration have decided to continue the Bush Administration’s recommendation to delist the gray wolf in the Great Lakes and most of the northern Rocky Mountains,” Dr. Burnett said. “The president passed his first test of his dedication to follow the science, even though his choice was an unpopular one given the political agenda of the environmentalists that supported his campaign.”
Burnett says the gray wolf population had surpassed standards set by biologists that would count the species as recovered long ago, so there is no biological reason to keep the gray wolves as endangered. Environmentalists have fought delisting the wolves as a means of trying to control local resource management in the West, he says.
The Obama Administration decided to leave the wolf under federal protection in Wyoming, where Interior Department has found the state’s management plan lacking.
“While I disagree with the Administration’s decision not to delist the wolf in Wyoming, allowing them to manage the wolf population under plans approved by fish and wildlife scientists, this is clearly a case of three-fourths of a loaf being much better than none,” Burnett said. “In this instance, science won out over politics. That’s change; a welcome change. Bravo!”