FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2003
Contact: Lisa Osborn, Defenders of Wildlife - 802-496-9549
Bart Semcer, Sierra Club - 202-675-6696

Wolf Coalition Stunned By US Fish and Wildlife Agency's Controversial Decision To Abandon Northeast Wolf Restoration

WAITSFIELD, Vt. - Conservationists expressed strong disappointment that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today rescinded proposed gray wolf recovery efforts for the Northeast. A coalition of more than thirty national, regional and local organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Wildlands Project, and RESTORE: The North Woods, called on the agency to keep its promise to implement the Endangered Species Act and recover a healthy wolf population in the Northeast.

"By abandoning the opportunity to return the wolf to the Northeast, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is completely ignoring science, the Endangered Species Act and public opinion," said Lisa Osborn of Defenders of Wildlife.

The final rule on gray wolf reclassification under the Endangered Species Act downlists the species from Endangered to Threatened and keeps the Northeast region administratively lumped together with wolf recovery areas in the Great Lakes region.

"The bottom line is that wolves in the Great Lakes region do not prey on deer and moose in northern New England," said Paula MacKay of the Wildlands Project.  "Wolf recovery requires a long-term commitment to restoring ecologically significant wolf populations across their native range-including the northeastern U.S.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is allowing politics to undermine its legal obligation to restore this species."

During the public comment period on the proposed reclassification, the agency received thousands of comments - the vast majority of which strongly supported a plan to restore gray wolves to suitable habitat in the Northeast.

"The public made it very clear it wants wolf recovery efforts in the Northeast. The law requires that wolves be restored to the region. The Bush Administration should keep the promise of the Endangered Species Act and work to return the wolf to the northeastern states," said the Sierra Club's Bart Semcer.

The eastern wolf once lived throughout the Northeast but became extinct in this region by the late 1800s due to bounty hunting and habitat destruction. Although wolves are making a comeback across a few areas of the U.S., they remain notably absent from the northeastern landscape. Scientific studies have shown that the North Woods of Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont could support nearly 2,000 wolves.

"It is clear that vast majority of people want wolves back," said Kristin DeBoer of RESTORE: The North Woods. "This decision is an offense to citizens everywhere who believe it is important to restore the balance of nature."

For more information, contact: The Coalition to Restore the Eastern Wolf (CREW), PO Box 281, Waitsfield, Vermont 05673. 802-496-9549 or crew@madriver.com

CREW consists of the following organizations: