Protecting the Voiceless

When it comes to protecting endangered species, we need to look at the scientific facts; the wolf population has struggled to reach the optimal population numbers for this keystone species. Though the population has increased within the last 25 years through reintroduction, wolves have not reached a high enough number to be delisted. Delisting the wolves will risk losing the progression made with these conservation laws and restrictions. It is simply too soon to delist wolves from the Endangered Species List.

Human’s agricultural and rural progressions continue to overlap with wolf habitat perimeters, ultimately bringing us to why this species was added on the Endangered Species List and exactly why they shouldn’t be removed too soon. Without these laws and regulations this battle between the ethical balance of nature and progress is one that nature will continue to lose. As stewards of the land, it is our duty to protect a balanced ecosystem.

Wolves fulfill their role as a keystone species by keeping elk and deer population leveled through predation. Wolf recovery has only reached 5% of their historic range (Granshaw L., 2013), in Oregon alone in 2015 there were 78 known wolves (Oregon Wild), increasing to 158 wolves in 2019 (ODFW, 2020). The yearly population has grown about 10% in the last 3 years alone (Weiss A., 2020) despite the decrease in conflict over livestock, I believe delisting now would not be in the species best interest due to the slow population growth over a long period of time.

Wolf recovery is still in its beginning stages, if we do not keep these conservation plans in place we are likely to end up back in stage one.