Maine Audubon Joins Lawsuit to Ensure Wolf Recovery in the Northeast

FALMOUTH - December 3, 2003

Maine Audubon’s board of trustees voted in November to join a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to continue wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast. Maine Audubon, the National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups charge that Fish & Wildlife’s decision last spring to abandon wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast violates the U. S. Endangered Species Act.

Citing the recovery of gray wolf populations in the Northern Rockies and western Great Lakes region and lumping that region together with the Northeast as one, in March Fish & Wildlife announced its plans to downgrade gray wolves from an endangered to threatened species in the combined region.

“Fish & Wildlife’s gray wolf reclassification rule would effectively terminate federal wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast, even though abundant wolf habitat exists here and wolves may be returning,” said Sally Stockwell, Maine Audubon’s conservation director. While the wolf can be found on just three percent of its historic range in the lower 48 states, tens of thousands of acres of former habitat remain available for wolf recovery here in Maine.

“Declaring victory for gray wolf recovery based solely on the presence of wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes is in direct violation of Fish & Wildlife’s ESA obligation to prevent extinction across a ‘significant portion’ of the wolf’s range,” stated Jody Jones, biologist for Maine Audubon. “Three percent is not significant. The decision not to pursue gray wolf recovery in the Northeast lacks any basis in science or law.”

National wildlife conservation groups have consistently objected to Fish and Wildlife’s decision to treat the disparate geographic regions as one. When the agency first proposed reclassifying the gray wolf in July 2000, it made a case for treating the Northeast as a “distinct population segment,” a categorization which, regardless of decisions made about other geographic regions of the country, would have made it possible to retain federal protection for the wolf to help promote its recovery in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.

Without wolves and other "keystone" predators, ecosystems are simplified and ultimately suffer reduced biodiversity. Maine Audubon’s decision to join the lawsuit recognizes that wolf recovery in the Northeast is highly dependent on reversing the Fish & Wildlife’s decision.

“Supporting this lawsuit is not only good for wolves, but good for Maine,” concluded Jenn Burns, staff attorney for Maine Audubon, citing the public interest in wolves, wolf viewing and wolf-based education programs that far exceeded initial expectations in Yellowstone National Park, where the return of wolves is one of the most successful stories in the history of wildlife conservation.

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