EDITOR:

In response to Nancy Warren’s letter entitled “Wolf”. You state that “it is not the role of legislators to delist a species from the Endangered Species Act, but the responsibility of the USFWS”. The USFWS has attempted to delist the wolf in the lake states numerous times using sound scientific management based on population abundance, health, biological indicators and the delisting population recovery goal set at 200 for five consecutive years. Of course, you know this as you were a member of the Michigan Wolf Management Roundtable as a designated representative (Defenders of Wildlife) and signed on to the “Michigan Wolf Management Plan” on 11/2/2006, which was approved by Director Humphries on 7/10/2008.

Each time the USFWS delisted the wolf in Michigan the court system restored it back to endangered status (once by Judge White from Oakland, CA. again by Judge Howell from Washington D.C.). You should know this because you (Defenders of Wildlife) along with other groups (Humane Society of the U.S., Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, National Parks Conservation Assoc, etc.) filed lawsuits to stop the delisting’s.

So, you are trying to get people to believe that the USFWS is responsible for delisting using strict criterion, which they are, but what you are not telling them is only if you agree, otherwise you will find a judge in a different state that has absolutely no idea about the wolf population in the U.P. Many of us knew in 2006 you had no intention of supporting the wolf management plan that you signed on to. You and others had different personal agendas!

The recovery goal for the U.P. to transfer management of wolves from federal jurisdiction to the State of Michigan was and is 200. This goal was reached in 2004, and the wolf should have been delisted in 2009. The winter population survey conducted by the MDNR in 2024 puts the winter count at 762, an increase of 131 since 2022. If this count is even close that would mean a spring/summer population between 1400 to 1500 wolves in the U.P.

Your talking points always include limited agricultural livestock predation. Most ag producers don’t waste time reporting losses because there must be prove of predation and with wolves most of the time there is none, just that the calf vanished from the earth.

You also mention the Center for Biological Diversity talking point that nothing can be delisted until every area in the country has a viable wolf population where they once existed. May I suggest a solution – instead of court, use your funds to pay for a wolf drop (I know where there are 762 wolves, but please leave at least 200).

You mention at the end, “we must not pander to the whims of a small but vocal minority”, as far as I am concerned that is you. Representative Bergman please keep up the fight to delist the wolf in the U.P. — the majority are behind you.

Rory Mattson

Escanaba