The U.S. House of Representatives votes to remove wolves from the endangered species list in 48 states

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to end federal protections for gray wolves, passing a bill that would remove them from the endangered species list in the lower 48 states.

A handful of Democrats joined Republicans in passing the bill. The measure now heads to the Senate, but appears doomed to failure after the White House issued a statement Monday warning that the Biden administration opposes it. Congress should have no role in determining whether a species has recovered, the statement said.

The Republican-authored bill comes amid a national debate over the future of wolves. Hunters and ranchers across the country claim the species is stable and have complained for years about wolf attacks on game species and livestock. They want to be able to kill the animals legally.

Conservationists insist the population remains vulnerable after nearly going extinct in the 1960s.

In 2011, Congress removed Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, and the Trump administration removed protections in the rest of the continental US in 2020. However, a federal judge blocked the change except in the northern Rocky Mountains. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last February rejected requests from conservation groups to restore protections in the six-state Rockies region, allowing state-sponsored wolf hunts to continue in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The agency estimated the region’s wolf population at nearly 3,000 animals at the end of 2022.

Wolves are not considered endangered in Alaska – the population there is between 7,000 and 11,000 animals – and they are not found in Hawaii. There were an estimated 8,000 animals in the lower 48 states in 2022, according to a compilation of data from the Wolf Conservation Center.

Republicans argued that wolves have clearly recovered and that ending protection should be celebrated as a conservation success.

Democrats countered that the species still needs help. They said if protections are lifted, hunters will once again push wolves to near-extinction.

“Passing this bill would simply say wolves have recovered, but that doesn’t mean they have,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat.

Rep. Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Oregon, said wolves are “natural killers” and that conservationists have no idea what it’s like for farmers and ranchers to get up in the middle of the night to deal with wolves’ attacks on their livestock to take.

The House of Representatives approved bill 209-205. Four Democrats sided with Republicans who voted for the bill, including Yadira Caraveo of Colorado, Henry Cueller of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state.

Todd Richmond, The Associated Press