Source: USMEF
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has determined that a petition to reclassify all gray wolves in the conterminous U.S., except for the Mexican wolf in the Southwest, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) does not present substantial information indicating that reclassification may be warranted.
As a result, the service will take no further action on the petition, which was submitted by The Humane Society of the United States and 22 other petitioners in January.
The USFWS review concluded that the petition did not provide information to indicate that the population petitioned for listing, which does not correspond to any currently listed gray wolf population, may qualify as a listable entity under the ESA.
The USFWS also found that the petition failed to provide substantial information indicating these wolves may meet the definition of a threatened species, specifically are likely to be in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their range.
This finding will appear in a 90-day batched notice with 30 other petition findings, both not-substantial and substantial, with separate docket numbers as listed here.