Analysis: Trump administration ignores overwhelming public opposition in delisting the gray wolf
Interior Department announces the gray wolves in the Lower 48 will no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act
Gray wolves across the continental United States are set to lose long-held protections under the Endangered Species Act. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced his department was formally removing the species from the endangered species list, opening the door for states to allow increased hunting and trapping. A new analysis by the Center for Western Priorities finds the Trump administration ignored overwhelming public opposition in delisting the gray wolf.
In the 20th century, wolf populations plummeted across the United States, as government-sanctioned hunting programs helped eradicate the species from vast portions of its historical range. After the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the gray wolf was included on the first list of species to receive protections in 1974, classified as “endangered.” Since then, wolf populations have rebounded slightly in some places, and wolves have been reintroduced in several locations, most notably in Yellowstone National Park. In recent decades, proposals to remove wolf protections, either nationwide or in specific locations, have been the subject of intense public debate, and most have ultimately been decided by the courts.
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to delist the gray wolf in March 2019, it opened a 120-day public comment period allowing stakeholders and members of the public to submit their views. In those four months, more than 757,000 people submitted comments.
A CWP analysis finds that more than 97% of public comments opposed the proposal to delist the wolf, with only 1.5% of commenters supporting the proposal. CWP assessed public sentiment of comments posted in the proposed rule docket on Regulations.gov by downloading the full text of all available comments, and selecting a random sample of comments (n=1,000) from the total of 107,690 comments posted online. Each comment was then individually coded as “support,” “oppose,” or “unclear” based on the sentiment expressed towards the proposed rule. Comments that were unrelated to the rule making were removed from the sample. The analysis has a margin of error of ± 3.00% at the 95% confidence level. Detailed results of the public comment sentiment analysis can be viewed here.
Under the Trump administration, the Interior Department has a long track record of ignoring overwhelming public opposition to enact its agenda. A previous CWP analysis of 10 major Interior policy changes found that although more than 95 percent of public comments opposed each of the proposed rule changes, Interior ultimately moved forward with 8 of the 10 proposals — including rolling back national monuments, weakening offshore drilling safety rules, and removing Yellowstone grizzly bears from the endangered species list.
With just three months left in the Trump administration’s first term, it is clear Interior Secretary Bernhardt is rushing to enact his destructive agenda, now matter how unpopular it is.
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