(The Center Square) – A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., that would federally delist gray wolves passed the U.S. House on Tuesday.
H.R. 764, or the “Trust the Science Act,” which passed on a 209 to 205 vote. It would delist the wolves in the lower 48 from the Endangered Species Act, reinstating a 2020 rule from the Department of Interior that was later overturned in court.
Boebert in a statement on the bill’s passage cited Colorado’s reintroduction of gray wolves following a ballot measure in 2020. Last month, ranchers reported several cases of the reintroduced wolves killing cattle.
“Rather than celebrating the gray wolf recovery success story, leftists want to cower to radical environmentalists and keep them on the Endangered Species Act list forever,” she said. “The gray wolf is fully recovered and should be delisted in the lower 48 states. Today’s bipartisan passage of my Trust the Science Act empowers states and puts people ahead of violent predators.”
Gray wolves are currently listed as endangered under the ESA in 44 states and threatened in Minnesota. States maintain jurisdiction in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, as well as parts of Oregon, Washington and Utah. In Colorado, the wolves are managed as an experimental population after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a special designation.
Environmental groups are currently suing USFWS after the agency denied their petition request to re-list gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains as endangered or threatened.
