Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) led a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Matha Williams, continuing the committee’s investigation into the USFWS's misguided gray wolf recovery plan. In part, the members wrote:

"As you know, on February 1, 2024, the Committee sent you a letter requesting information, documents, and records critical to our oversight activity. The deadline for the requested information, documents, and records requested in the Committee Letter was February 21, 2024. To date, the Service has not acknowledged the Committee Letter, let alone provided a substantive reply or production responsive to our requests. 

“On February 2, 2024, the Service launched ‘a National Recovery Plan under the Endangered Species Act for gray wolves in the lower 48 states.’  Given the launch of the Service’s Wolf Plan after the Committee Letter, the Committee further requests that you provide additional documents, records, communications, and information as outlined below to the Committee by June 6, 2024.
"Please explain why the Service is launching the Service’s Wolf Plan for a national recovery of the Gray Wolf population when the species is recovered, should be delisted, and management should be returned to the states."
Read the full letter here.

Background

The Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have all agreed the gray wolf is recovered and should be delisted, but extreme environmental groups and activist judges have stopped the delisting attempts. As demonstrated by the best available science, the gray wolf is fully recovered and should be celebrated as an Endangered Species Act success story. Recent analysis by the USFWS shows the gray wolf population is healthy and can sustain itself. The case for delisting is clear, and on April 30, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 764, the Trust the Science Act, which would remove the recovered gray wolf from the endangered species list.