{ "id": "R46184", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "R", "number": "R46184", "active": true, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov, EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "date": "2020-11-25", "title": "The Gray Wolf Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA): A Case Study in Listing and Delisting Challenges", "source_dir": "crsreports.congress.gov", "typeId": "R", "id": "R46184_3_2020-11-25", "retrieved": "2020-12-22T04:03:35.809045", "formats": [ { "filename": "files/2020-11-25_R46184_0452e4f33d26070b34d36b4fa8559d58824a619e.pdf", "sha1": "0452e4f33d26070b34d36b4fa8559d58824a619e", "url": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46184/3", "format": "PDF" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/2020-11-25_R46184_0452e4f33d26070b34d36b4fa8559d58824a619e.html" } ], "sourceLink": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R46184", "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "active": true }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 614059, "date": "2020-01-17", "retrieved": "2020-01-22T13:54:38.021069", "title": "The Gray Wolf Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA): A Case Study in Listing and Delisting Challenges", "summary": "Under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or the Act; 16 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7 1531-1544), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, the Services) determine which species to \u201clist\u201d as \u201cendangered species\u201d or \u201cthreatened species,\u201d terms defined in the Act. Species, subspecies, and distinct population segments (DPSs) may all be listed as \u201cspecies\u201d under the Act. Listing a species invokes certain protections under the Act and a requirement that the Services develop a recovery plan to conserve the species. Listed species may be reclassified by the Services from threatened to endangered or vice versa. The Services may also remove a species from the list, often called delisting, if it no longer meets the definition of an endangered or threatened species. The Services list, reclassify, and delist species pursuant to statutory criteria and definitions through the agency rulemaking process. Persons may\u2014and often do\u2014challenge the legality of those final rules through litigation. When such challenges succeed, the court remands the rule to the applicable Service for further proceedings and may vacate the challenged rule. \nThe gray wolf (Canis lupus) presents a useful example of the legal issues that arise with listing and delisting species as threatened and endangered under the ESA and how FWS has addressed them. FWS first listed the gray wolf as endangered in 1967 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act (ESPA), a predecessor of the ESA. The gray wolf\u2019s status and regulation under the ESA and its predecessors have been the subjects of numerous FWS rules and court opinions. FWS\u2019s gray wolf rules show how the agency\u2019s approach to interpreting and implementing the ESA has evolved and highlight hurdles that may arise with species\u2019 status determinations.\nAs American pioneers settled the West, hunting and other human-caused mortality, spurred by federal and state bounties, brought the gray wolf to near extinction. By the 1960s, the only population remaining in the lower 48 states was in the northern Minnesota forests. FWS listed the eastern timber wolf (C. lupus lycaon, a gray wolf subspecies found in Minnesota) as endangered under the ESPA. By 1976, three more gray wolf subspecies\u2014the Mexican wolf (C. lupus baileyi), the northern Rocky Mountain wolf (C. lupus irremotus), and the Texas wolf (C. lupus monstrabilis)\u2014were listed as endangered under the ESA. In 1978, FWS combined all gray wolf subspecies listings into one listing for the entire gray wolf species in the lower 48 states except Minnesota, which was listed as endangered, and a separate listing for the gray wolf in Minnesota as threatened. In the next few years, FWS created subspecies recovery plans that outlined management strategies and recovery criteria. In the 1990s, FWS reintroduced gray wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains and the Southwest as experimental populations under the ESA. Protected under the ESA from human-caused mortality, which FWS identified as the greatest threat to the species, gray wolf populations increased. In the 2000s, FWS tried on multiple occasions to reclassify or delist gray wolf DPSs it had determined were no longer in risk of extinction, but courts vacated many of the agency\u2019s rules. As of January 2020, the gray wolf is listed as endangered or threatened in the lower 48 states, except for a population in the northern Rocky Mountains.\nFWS\u2019s efforts to recover the gray wolf under the ESA exemplify the regulatory and legal challenges that arise when listing and delisting species under the Act. From initial listing to recovery and reintroduction efforts to more recent attempts to delist the gray wolf, FWS has addressed in its regulatory actions such issues as uncertainties in gray wolf taxonomy, ambiguous statutory terms (e.g., \u201cforeseeable future\u201d and \u201csignificant portion of its range\u201d), and the adequacy of state management plans. Stakeholders have questioned FWS\u2019s choices in comments to the proposed rules and have challenged many of the agency\u2019s gray wolf rules in court. Many of the legal challenges to FWS\u2019s delisting rules have succeeded, with courts vacating the rules and remanding them to the agency. The history of FWS\u2019s regulation of the gray wolf under the ESA and related litigation serve as a useful case study in how regulatory and legal challenges have shaped FWS\u2019s interpretation and application of key terms when listing and delisting species under the Act.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R46184", "sha1": "80c3d11a3af85e260df855969765efeedbeda599", "filename": "files/20200117_R46184_80c3d11a3af85e260df855969765efeedbeda599.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46184_files&id=/0.png": "files/20200117_R46184_images_a49b3714339f5d51c86d53b414be7f9293a0cd08.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46184_files&id=/4.png": "files/20200117_R46184_images_0d949cf2c0ed735d2f935804da61b1281c414944.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46184_files&id=/3.png": "files/20200117_R46184_images_9f2b337b3400382079c74bb035d5de25084da2a1.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46184_files&id=/1.png": "files/20200117_R46184_images_aed3526efc831b880f1a4eb7e8c455e8d24f741b.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R46184_files&id=/2.png": "files/20200117_R46184_images_81fb0e21a3ac423fb80478060ede4cce88d45a0f.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R46184", "sha1": "52a2951328c672bdf1478a92950594615184ccfe", "filename": "files/20200117_R46184_52a2951328c672bdf1478a92950594615184ccfe.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4928, "name": "Wildlife & Ecosystems" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Foreign Affairs" ] }