And it's important to remember, handing management of wolves over to the states, and allowing the public to hunt them in those states, was promised all along, as soon as the wolves reached the agreed-upon recovery levels. Those population levels were reached years ago, yet delisting has been held up by litigation time and again.
Even the man who led efforts to reestablish wolves here apparently thinks it's time to delist them. When he retired earlier this year from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, after leading the agency's wolf recovery program for 23 years, Ed Bangs seemed to think recovery had been achieved, and it was time to delist the wolves. And at that time, delisting seemed to finally be on track. The establishment of a viable population, one big enough to be delisted, represented the fruition of his efforts, Bangs thought, and he told the local press as much. (http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_a8b10bb7-afdc-579c-865a-c2cd27e001b3.html
One thing is for certain, wolves are here to stay. Some locals might not like it, and they might have good reasons for not liking it. Likewise, others might not like the idea of wolves being hunted and shot. Wildlife is a public trust, and much of the habitat wolves roam is on federal land, belonging to all the people of the United States. No program is going to satisfy everybody. And there are some with strident opinions on either extreme who will never be happy, no matter what. But I'm confident that the time is ripe for delisting. And through delisting and state management, a satisfactory balance can be struck.
For those who have never seen a wolf in the wild, I can only say, it's not something that can really be explained. It has to be experienced.
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