WASHINGTON D.C. (WKZO AM/FM ) – Trump administration officials have removed Endangered Species Protection status from gray wolves, paving the way for hunting the animals in many areas of the country, including Michigan.
The ruling will allow states and tribes to monitor the oversight of the gray wolf, and is another in a line of rulings aimed at crucial voters in rural areas of the country before Election Day.
The new rule announced Thursday is scheduled to go into effect in early January, 60 days after it’s posted in the federal register on November 3. The rule is just the latest in more than a decade of attempts by the federal government to remove gray wolves from endangered species protection and return them to state control.
In 2007, the Fish and Wildlife Service attempted to remove the gray wolf in the upper Great Lakes states from federal protection. A year and a half later, a federal judge reversed the ruling. The agency attempted to remove the gray wolf a second time in 2009, but backtracked after another court challenge.
