Trump signs order to remove endangered species status for grey wolves
BBC • • nation
Key Points:
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove endangered species protection for grey wolves and Mexican wolves, potentially allowing ranchers to kill them to protect livestock.
- The order emphasizes the importance of ranchers in the food supply chain and American cultural heritage, while giving the Interior Secretary 90 days to decide if wolf populations have recovered enough to be delisted.
- Conservation groups criticize the move, warning it could undermine decades of recovery efforts, noting that Mexican wolves have increased from 4 to 319 in the wild since 1998, but remain vulnerable.
- Environmentalists argue that wolf attacks on livestock are rare and financially compensated under current programs, and that the order primarily serves to appease ranchers amid rising beef prices and import policy changes.
- The executive order arrives amid ongoing challenges in the beef industry, including drought and parasite outbreaks, with historical context of near-eradication of wolves due to past government and private extermination campaigns.
