Fed Halts Red Wolf Recovery in North Carolina

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has decided to put the brakes on a recovery program for one of the most endangered species of canine in all of North America, the red wolf. And while the Service assures us that this does not spell the end for the program entirely, it has done little to quell the ire of conservation groups.

"Make no mistake, this is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abandoning endangered red wolves while they stand at the brink of extinction," Brett Hartl, the endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in a recent statement.

As things stand, it is estimated that a little more than 100 red wolves (Canis rufus) in North America, with a maximum of 75 located a peninsula in North Carolina - the product of an experimental release in the 1980s. The recent decision made by the FWS was to indefinitely suspend plans to introduce more red wolves to those wilds while the effectiveness and impact of the program is investigated.

"These actions are the next steps in our commitment to get the science right," Cindy Dohner, the Service's Southeast Regional Director said when the suspension of the reintroduction program was first announced.

"There will likely be some who will suggest we are walking away from recovery efforts for the red wolf and simultaneously there will be others who might say we're holding on too tight," she added. "We have a responsibility under the ESA to provide good management and shepherd the conservation and recovery of this species to the best of our ability. What we are announcing today holds true to those responsibilities and the expectations of our citizens and partners." (Scroll to read on...)

Still, for many conservationists, the FWS' decision reeks of abandonment, especially with no concrete dates set for when the program will be resumed.

"The emphasis and tone have moved far away from the conservation and recovery of an endangered species," Sierra Weaver, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, NC, told The American Association for the Advancement of Science. "[The Service] seems to be preparing the public for its eventual extinction in the wild."

"The agency can dress it up in bureaucrat-speak but there's no avoiding the fact that the recovery program for the red wolf... is being left to wither on the vine," Hartl added. "More study of the red wolf recovery program is not needed - we know how to recover and restore red wolves to the landscape... What is needed right now is for the agency to stop appeasing radical right-wing elements that despise wildlife and want to see the Endangered Species Act repealed."

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