Tiffany-authored bill could move management to state with over 100 wolf attacks in recent year
The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill by Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany that, if approved by the Senate, would remove the state’s rapidly expanding and aggressive gray wolf population from the endangered species list and open the door for state management.
The bill passed 211-204, with five Democrats voting with the majority.
Gray wolves are increasingly prevalent and threatening.
At the turn of the century, there were roughly 300 gray wolves in the Badger State. The number surged past 1,100 before a three-day hunt in February 2021 that culled 218 of them. Gray wolves were taken off the endangered species list — that is, “delisted” — immediately before the hunt, but then relisted by a federal court ruling in February 2022.
Since then, the population has grown to an estimated 1,226, according to a Department of Natural Resources monitoring report.
The bill specifically prohibits judicial review of the kind that reversed an October 2020 executive decision for the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves from the endangered list.
Decisions by “activist judges” in lawsuits are precisely why the bill precludes judicial review, so they “can no longer dictate how Wisconsin manages its wolf population and restore management to those who understand local needs best,” Tiffany said.
Minnesota has the most gray wolves, approximately 2,919, followed by Idaho (1,253), Wisconsin (1,226), Montana (1,091) and Michigan (762). Enacting H.R. 845 would expand to every state the delisting approved in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Oregon and Washington, and parts of Utah by Congress in 2011.
“The recovery of wolves in this country is one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act,” Tiffany said. “That’s the way the Endangered Species Act is supposed to work. People should be celebrating.”
Last month, the Wildlife Service published a report that announced it had halted completion of a national wolf recovery plan because studies across 44 states, including Wisconsin, where wolves are considered endangered, and in Minnesota, where they are considered threatened, show the recovery is complete.
The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental activist groups in the forefront of keeping wolves on the endangered list, announced its intention to sue the Wildlife Service for failing to follow through on its recovery plan.
That federal protection has prevented farmers and businesspeople from taking steps other than expensive and ineffective fencing to keep livestock, pets and other wildlife safe from wolf predation, Tiffany said.
As a result, attacks and threats are common. In a recent one-year period alone, there were well over 100 attacks upon animals, including pets, in Wisconsin, and numerous other threats. DNR trackers confirmed 39 cattle, 15 horses, four chickens and a sheep killed by wolves, and dozens of other reported attacks. There were also two threats to humans.
The state paid $322,969 in compensation to citizens for wolf damage in 2024 alone, according to a monitoring report. The state has paid more than $3.7 million since 1985, according to a payment summary.
In the Senate, the bill would have the full support of Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican who has for years called for the delisting of wolves. Sen. Tammy Baldwin had no comment on the bill, according to staff asked for an opinion by the Badger Institute.
Baldwin, a Democrat, has been on the record since at least 2016 in support of delisting. In 2023, she introduced legislation not to actually delist wolves but to create an advisory committee to create a plan to delist wolves in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
President Trump, meanwhile, has asked the Department of Interior to withhold “blanket” protections for species newly designated as threatened, or in danger of becoming endangered.
He is also asking for agencies such as the Wildlife Service to make economic impact a part of decision-making on designating critical habitats for endangered and threatened species.
“This administration is restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent, protecting species through clear, consistent and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement last month.
“These revisions,” he said, “end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach, delivering certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense.”
Among the many responses in support of the changes, the Property and Environment Research Center, a free-market property rights non-profit in Montana, said the Endangered Species Act is badly in need of reform.
“A half-century after the ESA’s enactment, regulations have generated endless conflict but little species recovery, precisely because they infringe property rights, ignore the role of states, and prioritize red tape over voluntary recovery efforts,” the organization said in its statement. “A new approach is necessary to change that.”
Trump’s rules changes, will have little bearing on the endangered status of wolves in Wisconsin. Should his delisting bill become law, Tiffany said, farmers and cattlemen will still need to contend with a Department of Natural Resources beholden to a governor who last year vetoed a bill capping wolf populations in the state.
Gov. Tony Evers has endorsed the DNR’s Wolf Management Plan, a document drafted in 2023 and much reviled by private property champions — a document that Tiffany, who is running for governor, said he would tear up, if elected.
Tiffany said he also expected resistance from the governor and the DNR to another wolf hunt should continued growth of the wolf population in the state warrant it. “Even if they did agree, I’d expect them to set the numbers so low it wouldn’t make a difference,” he said.
Mark Lisheron is the Managing Editor of the Badger Institute.
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