Earthjustice Responds to House Vote to Strip Gray Wolves of Endangered Species Act Protections

Washington, D.C. —

Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted 211-204 to pass a bill (H.R. 845) that would strip gray wolves of federal protections across the country, if made into law. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-R), would upend decades of work to recover gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Removing ESA protections would open the door to unrestricted harm like wolf hunts, hinder efforts to recover wolves within their historic range, and risk destabilizing ecosystems that wolf recovery have improved. 

Rep. Boebert’s bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to reissue a final rule from the first Trump administration that delisted the gray wolf under the ESA — and bars judicial review of the Secretary’s action.  

The following is a statement from Addie Haughey, Earthjustice’s Legislative Director for Lands, Wildlife and Oceans: 

“Despite the decades of effort invested in wolf recovery, broad public support for continued Endangered Species Act listing, and clear scientific evidence for protections to remain, this vote puts wolves in the crosshairs. Congress need only look to the disastrous 2021 Wisconsin wolf hunt that killed up to a third of the state’s wolves in one season to know that delisting wolves would jeopardize the species’ continued recovery.”

Background:

Gray wolf populations in the United States remain unrecovered after decades of unrestricted hunting, trapping, and poisoning, as well as the destruction of habitat and subsequent loss of prey. While the gray wolf population has improved since the species received protection under the ESA in the 1970s, Rep. Boebert’s bill would stop this vital progress in its tracks. 

When President Trump tried to delist gray wolves in 2020, nearly two million public comments were submitted in opposition. Earthjustice challenged Trump’s rule on behalf of conservation groups, and two years later a federal court found the delisting unlawful. 

When ESA protections were temporarily removed by the Trump administration in 2021, before the court order reinstated protections, Wisconsin held a disastrous hunt that killed 218 wolves in just three days. (Tribes in Wisconsin, whose treaty rights have been violated by previous wolf hunts in the state, have come out in opposition to Rep. Boebert’s bill.) 

Gray wolves lack federal protections in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and portions of several adjacent states due to a series of administrative and legislative maneuvers. Since wolves were delisted in the Northern Rockies, the region has seen anti-carnivore state policies and extreme killing practices meant to drastically reduce the species.  In Montana alone, nearly 300 wolves were killed during the 2024-2025 hunting season. In Idaho, the Department of Fish and Game is working to reduce the state’s wolf population by more than 60 percent over six years. 

Rep. Boebert’s bill comes while 78 percent of Americans want to see continued federal protections for gray wolves. amidst a barrage of Trump administrative efforts to weaken the ESA, which is credited with saving 99 percent of species under its protection and still enjoys widespread support among U.S. voters.