Delisting Wolves Legislation Pt 2

Delisting Wolves Legislation Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. We talked yesterday about a bill that would remove gray wolves from the endangered species list and move their management to state regulators.

U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says delisting is something state Fish and Wildlife has requested and has bipartisan support ...

NEWHOUSE ... "As we have seen in Washington there has been a good cooperative effort to do just that and this will untie the hands of our state regulators so they can do the work that they're qualified to do."

So if this gets the necessary support and manages to pass, how soon could this happen ...

NEWHOUSE ... "You know, we are just days away from the end of the fiscal year and there's not that many legislative days left before the end of the calendar year and the 115th Congress. And so, this could happen quite soon actually. If we can get this through the house and over to the Senate in a timely manner we could have this done this year."

Newhouse says it's not a done-deal, but many groups have come together on this ...

NEWHOUSE ... "The pushback comes from some of those, I guess you could say, in the environmental community where they don't see the reason to delist the wolf. They want to keep it under protected status. And so, this won't be a unanimous vote. I'm sure there will have to be a lot of work done in order to be successful here, but I think starting out with broad support is going to be helpful."

Newhouse says states could manage the wolves according to the needs of the species as well as those of the farmers and ranchers.

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