On Feb. 27 Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed an appeal to a federal court ruling that returned wolves in Michigan to the federal endangered species list.
The appeal was filed on behalf of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to uphold the December 2011 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision that removed the Great Lakes distinct population segment of wolves from the federal endangered species list.
Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason said in a statement the wolves in Michigan are recovered from the endangered species status.
“Continuing to use the Endangered Species Act to protect a recovered species not only undermines the integrity of the Act, it leaves farmers and others with no immediate recourse when their animals are being attacked and killed by wolves,” Russ said.
Fisheries and wildlife professor William Porter said there are 600 wolves in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
“Given the cold weather that we had this winter it is likely that ... the lakes froze, and it’s reasonably likely that wolves may have crossed the ice and have come to part of the Lower Peninsula,” Porter said.
Porter said the wolf recovery plan initially stated the wolf population needed to be 100 in Michigan and Wisconsin in order to be removed from the federal endangered species list.
“What the endangered species list is intended to do is to bring species that are in danger of extinction back to the point where extinction is very unlikely,” Porter said.
Porter recognized the impact of wolves in agriculture and farming — one of the points when favoring the removal of wolves from the list.
“In areas where there is a lot of agriculture, they have influenced livestock,” Porter said. “We certainly know that in the Upper Peninsula there are some farmers that have had difficulties with wolves and livestock,” Porter said.
According to the press release sent by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the federal district court’s decision was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the United States against the state of Michigan.
“The wolves in Michigan are 15 years past the population goals set for recovery by the federal government,” Michigan Department of Natural Resources Public Information Officer Ed Golder said. “A lot of wolves management tools have been taken out of the hands of state ... professionals.”
