Starvin Larry

A group of leading wolf scientists are urging the western Great Lakes population of gray wolves be removed from protections of the Endangered Species Act.

The 26 scientists, including Dave Mech of the University of Minnesota and Adrian Wydeven of the Timber Wolf Alliance, argue the species has successfully recovered in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and should be delisted.

“It is in the best interests of gray wolf conservation and for the integrity of the Endangered Species Act for wolves to be delisted in the western Great Lakes states where biological recovery has occurred and where adequate regulatory mechanisms are in place to manage the species,” wrote the scientists in a letter delivered Wednesday to Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Department of Interior, and Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The scientists’ position supports past decisions by government agencies, which has moved three times to delist the wolf in the region, only to be overturned by lawsuits or legal challenges.

The most recent action occurred in December when a federal district judge ruled the states were not providing adequate safeguards to the species.

The scientists’ letter comes a week after Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) introduced Senate Bill 2281, legislation to remove the wolf in the Midwest and Wyoming from Endangered Species Act protections. The bill also would ban courts from overruling the Department of Interior on wolf delisting.

The future of the legislation, and a companion bill in the House of Representatives, is uncertain.

Wydeven said the scientists did not take a position on a specific bill but did support returning wolf management to the states.

“The Endangered Species Act is a wonderful wildlife conservation tool for recovering populations of endangered wildlife,” said Wydeven, who worked as a wolf biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources from 1990 to 2014. “But when wildlife species recover, the role of the federal government is to return management to the states.”

The wolf population in most of the continental United States declined precipitously in the 19th and 20th centuries due to shooting, poisoning and trapping.

A remnant population of wolves persisted in northern Minnesota and Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. Protections afforded under the Endangered Species Act allowed wolves to re-colonize the upper Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, said Mech.

About 750 wolves were found in the region in 1974. In 2014, biologists estimated the wolf population at more than 3,700 in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. In each state, recovery thresholds have been exceeded, according to the scientists.

“Wolf recovery is a tremendous success story,” said Mech, who has researched wolves for more than 40 years.

Some see the recovery as incomplete, however.

“Wolves are found in less than 10% of their historic range,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center of Biological Diversity. “What the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did is draw circles around the areas the wolves have come back. But there are substantial blocks of habitat where they could but haven’t yet returned.”

Greenwald pointed to the Adirondack region in New York, the southern Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Utah, northern California, the Cascades of Oregon and Washington, and the lower peninsula of Michigan as areas that wolves could, if given the opportunity, establish packs.

“If you delist wolves in the Great Lakes you would undermine recovery of the greater whole,” Greenwald said. “We feel the species deserves additional protection.”

The list of scientists calling for delisting includes former or current University of Wisconsin professors Scott Craven, Tom Heberlein and Tim Van Deelen, as well as Scott Hygnstrom of UW-Stevens Point, Ed Bangs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana, and Gary Alt, former deer and bear ecologist in Pennsylvania.

The scientists argue delisting is important for the wolf population as well as for the future of the Endangered Species Act.

“The integrity and effectiveness of the ESA is undercut if delisting does not happen once science-based recovery has been achieved,” the scientists wrote. “When this happens, it creates disincentives for the states to continue to be active participants in recovery efforts and creates public resentments toward the species and the ESA.

“It is important to the overall ESA goal of maintaining biodiversity to focus available funds on species that are truly threatened or endangered.”

Wydeven said illegal killings of wolves increase when the species is under ESA protections. In recent years, about 10% of adult wolves died from illegal kills when federally-listed compared to only about 5% when state-managed, according to Wydeven.

“Once a species has recovered, management responsibilities should return to the states and federal funding should be applied to species that truly are endangered,” Wydeven said.

“State wildlife managers were instrumental in bringing back wolves to the upper Great Lakes states, and now it’s important that they use their professional expertise to make sure that wolves are a part of our landscape for now and generations to come.”

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By Publius Huldah

To All State Governors and State Legislators:

War is coming to America. Obama is importing young able-bodied males to make civilizational jihad on us; and Congress can’t summon up the moral courage to stop him.

To see what is ahead for us, watch this 20 minute video. It depicts the Islamic takeover which is right now going on throughout Europe as European countries are being repopulated by millions of young able-bodied Muslim males (euphemistically called “refugees”) who are explicit about their intention to breed the native Europeans out of existence, and replace the European cultures with Islamic culture.

And Obama is bringing it here.

This paper discusses the two courses of action set forth in Federalist Paper No. 46 for situations such as this: (1) The States must refuse to cooperate with the federal government; but if that doesn’t solve the problem, (2) The States must use their State Militia to defend their State and Citizens.

Invaders are not “Refugees” or “Immigrants”

Those pushing for an Islamic takeover of Europe and North America are referring to these able-bodied young Muslim males as “refugees”. The use of that term brings the Muslims who are brought into the United States within the federal Refugee Resettlement Act. And since the Constitution delegates power over immigration to Congress, and Congress re-delegated refugee policy to the President, the States must submit to Obama’s Will and accept the “refugees” he forces on them. Thus goes the specious argument recently made by Ian Millhiser.

But we will look at the Truth.

What does our Constitution say about Immigration and Naturalization?

Read the rest here

h/t Madd Medic

Via NC Renegade

We see the Muslim ‘refugees’ flooding Europe at the invitation of the European governments. The European citizens are not consulted. Obama and the progressives are insisting that we accept large numbers of these people, as well. Of course, we’re not consulted, either. If we complain, we’re hateful racists and Islamaphobes.

At first, I thought this was just about destroying our respective cultures. Now, I wonder if something more sinister may be in play. Seems the Muslim newcomers are not comprised of families, but are primarily young military aged men. Begs the question …

It would seem that all these young Muslims need to carry out Jihad are weapons, which brings me back to all the .40 caliber hollow point ammo the Feds were buying a couple of years ago. We could see no logical reason for the purchase at that time. Maybe now we do?

I often ask the kids I teach if they can name one government in the history of the world that has been good to or for it’s people. I get crickets in response. Frankly, I can’t name one, either. Might be time to lock and load.