In 1973, gray wolves were listed as endangered species and on Nov. 3, 2020, citing recovery goals being achieved, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a final rule delisting the gray wolf in the lower 48 states, with an effective date of Jan. 4, 2021. Litigation volleyed them back onto the Endangered Species Act list in 2022. This week, a federal delisting bill known as the Pet and Livestock Protection Act is bound for the House.
Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., and Rep. Lauren Boebert’s, R-Colo., bill to delist gray wolves passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee on a 24-17 vote on April 9, 2025. Boebert said gray wolves are fully recovered and their comeback ought to be touted as a success story.
Boebert said she hears from her colleagues in D.C. on the other side of the aisle demanding scientific data, something she said the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have all followed in delisting gray wolves.
“During the Biden administration, we worked diligently to keep them off the list, but unfortunately frivolous litigation was filed by the Defenders of Wildlife and Wild Earth Guardians, extremist groups, and the California activist judge subsequently pandered to these groups by vacating the 2020 rule and unilaterally relisting the gray wolf,” she said.
Gray wolves are listed under the ESA as endangered in 44 states, threatened in Minnesota, and under state jurisdiction in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, portions of eastern Oregon and Washington, and north-central Utah. According to the USFWS, based on the latest data as of the end of 2022, there were approximately 2,797 wolves distributed across at least 286 packs in seven states in the Western United States. This population size and widespread distribution contribute to the resiliency and redundancy of wolves in this region. The population maintains high genetic diversity and connectivity, further supporting their ability to adapt to future changes.
“We have so many in Canada, that we’re starting to import them into Colorado, which is just adorable,” she said, tongue in cheek. “This bipartisan science is extremely clear. It’s time to delist the gray wolf and celebrate it as an ESA success story.”
STATUS ASSESSMENT
The USFWS completed a peer-reviewed status assessment in 2024 incorporating data from federal, state, and Tribal sources, academic institutions and the public. The analysis concluded that wolves are not at risk of extinction in the Western U.S. now or in the foreseeable future. The USFWS said the debate over wolf management has included two decades of litigation, legislation and rulemaking, with courts invalidating five out of six rules finalized by USFWS. Boebert and Tiffany’s bill will eliminate the ability to challenge the delisting in court. According to a release from Boebert, PALPA requires the Secretary of the Interior to reissue the 2020 Department of the Interior final rule that delisted gray wolves in the lower 48 United States. It also ensures this rule cannot be overturned through judicial review, preventing activist judges, like the California judge who vacated the rule in 2022, from relisting the gray wolf by judicial fiat.
Colorado Woolgrowers Association Executive Director Bonnie Eddy said, “with over 2,000 wolves on the landscape in the western United States, the species has been biologically recovered for years. Unfortunately, ESA species are often used to restrict land use and control habitat. Delisting will give farmers, ranchers, and agencies much-needed flexibility to manage depredating wolves that kill livestock and to manage the negative impacts to our big game herds.”
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Arkansas, said ESA “was never meant to be a Hotel California where species check in but never leave.” Westerman said the act will “allow the recovered gray wolf to check out and return management to the states who know the species best.”
PALPA was supported by American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Public Lands Council, National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, Hunter Nation, International Order of T. Roosevelt, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation, Blacktail Deer Foundation, Colorado Farm Bureau, Colorado Conservation Alliance, Colorado Wool Growers, New Mexico Cattle Growers, Mesa County, CO, Minnesota Lamb & Wool Producers Association, Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association, Nebraska Cattlemen, and Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association. 32 members of Congress cosponsored the act, including Colorado’s Rep. Jeff Crank, Rep. Gabe Evans, Rep. Jeff Hurd, and Wyoming’s Congresswoman Harriett Hageman.