Bush Administration Takes Aim at Endangered Wolves

In America’s last wild places, endangered wildlife such as polar bears, wolves, and whales are already facing mounting habitat destruction from industrial development, global warming and other harmful activity. Now, the Bush Administration wants to weaken the Endangered Species Act – our nation’s safety net for plants and animals on the brink of extinction — by allowing government agencies with no formal wildlife experience to decide the fate of imperiled species. If enacted, endangered wildlife would be even more vulnerable to threats from logging, drilling and other development.

Last spring, the Bush Administration moved to strip gray wolves in the Northern Rockies of their endangered species protection and leave them vulnerable to mass killing. In September, it withdrew that plan under legal pressure from NRDC. Now, in its final days in office, the Bush Administration wants to ram through a new “License to Kill” plan that could lead to the massacre of hundreds of wolves in the Northern Rockies.